Daily Times

Tensions are high and tempers are flying. Pakistan has buried its soldiers amidst all the sound and the fury. Now comes time for ultimatums and harsh reminders that Pakistan is a sovereign state and will not take this kind of unfriendly provocation. Saturday morning saw the deaths of some 20 plus soldiers at a check post near the Pak-Afghan border when they came under fire by NATO forces in what Pakistan calls an unprovoked attack. Pakistan wasted no time yesterday to let the US and NATO forces know that it was not going to take this attack lying down. A major NATO supply route through Khyber Agency was closed down immediately after the attack and now the supply route through Balochistan has also been blocked. The Defence Committee of the Cabinet was urgently called to deliberate a timely response — the US has been given 15 days to vacate a key airbase in Balochistan. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has sternly spoken to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and told her that any progress made in the already fragile relations between Pakistan and the US has been negated and that the attack was in complete disregard for human life. The no holds barred dialogue also had the FM tell Ms Clinton that Pakistanis were in a fit of rage over this act by NATO forces. These same sentiments have also been expressed to British Foreign Secretary William Hague. Both Clinton and Hague have done what US and NATO players do best: offer condolences to bring a potentially explosive situation back from the brink.

From what is now becoming evident after more investigation into the incident, a fire-fight was taking place in East Kunar province between NATO forces and militants due to which NATO called in air support. According to the latest reports, Afghan officials say that during this fight, soldiers from the attacked check post started firing at NATO and Afghan forces. These accusations suggest that the incident may not have been so ‘unprovoked’ after all. Whether or not this was the case, one cannot say but of this one can be certain: the incident has brought already fractured Pak-US relations to a screeching halt.

At the heart of the issue lies the fact that the Afghan Taliban can come and go across the border as they please to attack US and NATO targets in Afghanistan only to cross back into their safe havens in Pakistan. Our forces are present on the porous Pak-Afghan border and so chances of clashes will only increase with the presence of such cross-border activity. If NATO does conduct ‘hot pursuit’ operations — although there is no evidence that this particular instance was one of hot pursuit — our casualties will only increase. To avoid such situations it is imperative that we stop providing sanctuary to the militants. If we cannot stop providing safe havens what is to stop the US and NATO forces from conducting hot pursuit and attacks on our sovereignty to fight off the militants?

We may have used our logistics to our advantage by cutting off supply routes and demanding our airbases back and, in the short term, this tactic may just work. However, condolences and promises of investigations aside, who are we kidding? The US and NATO forces have routinely made it a matter of policy to do as they please and then apologise and move on. Contradictions in the US-Pakistan relationship will continue to exist and will increase the chances of confrontation.*