Pakistan’s defense minister, Khawaja Asif, recently said that the country is in a state of “open war” with Afghanistan. Asif issued this statement after Islamabad launched air strikes deep inside its neighbor’s territory. Both countries have engaged in hostile acts against one another.
The confrontation between these former allies has now escalated dramatically after Pakistani forces carried out strikes in Nangarhar province and Kabul on the night of March 16. A drug rehabilitation center was hit in the Afghan capital, reportedly killing at least one hundred people and attracting widespread condemnation.
In the aftermath, Taliban spokesmen stated that the time for diplomacy was over and promised revenge for the loss of civilian life. Pakistani government ministers retorted by insisting that no hospital was targeted and vowing to carry on with their military campaign. Neither side appears willing to back down.
The current escalation began when the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) conducted raids that supposedly targeted hideouts of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a group that opposes the Pakistani state, on February 23. According to the Afghan Red Crescent Society, at least eighteen civilians were killed in these attacks. The Afghan Taliban then announced that it would respond.
Pakistan has been carrying out air and cross-border strikes inside Afghanistan for the last few years against the background of a rise in terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil. Islamabad has alleged that the perpetrators of these attacks, mainly the TTP, have been operating from Afghan bases with the support of the Afghan Taliban.
That is not what Islamabad had expected from the Taliban when they retook Kabul in 2021, having assisted them in their fight against the US-led forces in Afghanistan. Many Pakistani figures, including former prime minister Imran Khan, believed that with the Taliban back in power, Islamabad would have a friendly regime in Kabul. The growing hostilities between…
Auteur: Nazir Ahmad Mir
