Daily Times

Clearly anti-Pakistan terrorists, and all those who arm and fund them, are up to no good as attacks against security personnel are on the rise once again. Last week again witnessed back-to-back attacks in Balochistan and the tribal area bordering Afghanistan in which close to 20 people were martyred. That this uptick in attacks is being noticed just when the Afghan peace process is gathering pace ought to tell the government, and the country’s security and intelligence agencies, quite a lot about what might really be happening. It seems – and those who covered the war for a long time warned about just such things —that the countries that were using the Afghan theatre to indulge in cross-border sabotage for their own purposes were not too happy about the way the situation was developing and decided to use the time that they had left to try and achieve more of their aims.

The Indian presence in Afghanistan has long been far bigger than justified considering its limited business in the country. The Pakistani side knew just what they were doing, of course, and warned anybody that would listen. But back then Pakistan, especially its intelligence service, was seen as the bad guy of the Afghan war. And it was only when the Americans and their friends tried everything possible under the sky to win the Afghan war and failed that they realised that the Pakistanis were right all along. To end this long and ugly war, the only approach that had the slightest chance of working was accepting that both Kabul and Washington would have to talk to the Taliban.

Surely it’s not just a coincidence that anti state terrorist groups have formed alliances in Balochistan as well as the tribal area just when Pakistan is helping wrap up the Afghan war. In fact Pakistan’s national security advisor was pretty straight forward during an interview to an Indian TV channel just a few days ago about just how Delhi has kept itself busy by expanding its scope of so-called hybrid warfare in Pakistan. And now that Islamabad would have realised just what is happening, you can be sure that everything will be done to protect Pakistan’s territorial integrity, the lives and safety of all its people, and of course its interests while exposing the villains behind the recent terrorist attacks. *