Must not waste the opportunity
Those who make the country’s Afghan policy have been caught pants down. They had no explanation to offer when the otherwise elusive Mullah Mansour who leads Afghan Taliban was discovered and killed inside Balochistan on Saturday. A Pentagon spokesman owned the attack claiming several US army drones had attacked the vehicle carrying the Taliban chief in Dalbandin district, killing Mullah Mansour on the spot along with a Pakistani driver. Those guarding Pakistan’s frontiers too had nothing to say for a whole day regarding how the violation took place. One had expected that the Interior Minister would order an inquiry over how Mullah Mansour managed to acquire Pakistani passport and presumably ID card under another name. Ch Nisar too preferred to play possum. What one met with was silence for over twenty four hours on the part of the entire establishment, reminding one of what happened after the attack in Abbottabad that killed Bin Laden.
The presence of Mullah Mansour in Baluchistan would provide an additional argument to those who claim that Pakistan’s officially stated policy towards Afghanistan is not the one that the country actually follows. It will also provide yet another handle to the critics in Washington who would oppose more vigorously any assistance being provided to Pakistan.
This is the first US drone attack in Baluchistan. The attack not only constitutes a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty but also signals a new willingness on the part of the US to target senior Taliban leaders on Pakistan’s soil even if it leads to collateral damage as happened when the Taliban leader was targeted.
It is hoping against hope that those who formulate Afghan policy would ever learn from their costly blunders. The incident nevertheless provides them an opportunity to recast the policy. Afghan Taliban must be denied sanctuaries in Pakistan and told bluntly to hold talks with the legal government in Kabul. It is not a sane policy doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for different results.