Afghanistan too needs to do more

• Gen Nicholson offers action against Afghan-based TTP militants but…

Since the proclamation of the (for Pakistan) exceedingly harshly-termed Trump Afghan policy, Islamabad is the butt of intense tunnel-vision censure from Washington and Kabul about alleged safe havens of Afghan Taliban in its border regions, from where they conduct deadly strikes especially in the Afghan capital. The official US record is struck in the worn out Haqqani groove, and this network is blamed for all acts of horrific terrorism, ignoring Afghan Taliban sway over large swathes of territory, increasing IS signature, and the incessant wedge-driving Indian intrigues and manipulations. Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah recently admitted that TTP carried out cross-border attacks from Afghanistan, though he also gave a self-serving spin that ‘insecure areas’ and instability caused by insurgent’s (read Haqqani group) terror attacks facilitated such activities. Now, with the US Defence Secretary expected in Islamabad on December 3, Gen Nicholson, US-NATO forces commander in Afghanistan, has offered a carrot in the usual stick policy, but again with a catch. The fine print is that Islamabad should relay any intelligence of impending attack from across the Durand Line to US forces, and to refrain from taking retaliatory action itself. Quite an airy-fairy arrangement, considering the swiftness and surprise of such attacks. Still, Pakistan has welcomed the US proposal as a positive development and gesture, but with its own caveats, that Afghanistan, like Pakistan, should restore Kabul’s writ on border territory, enhance troop patrolling, establish new posts and crossing areas, and fence vulnerable sections.

Pakistan army’s Operation Khyber IV successfully cleared 253 square kilometers of militant-infested Rajgal Valley, with the survivors fleeing into Afghanistan, and this region is the cockpit of multiple cross-border militant attacks, and along with Bajaur, has resulted in martyrdom of four Pakistani soldiers since October 3, the latest incident occurring on November 13 in which a Captain and Sepoy perished, irreversible losses that cannot be remedied. Pakistan has done its fair share along the Afghan border, and visiting Gen James Mattis needs to gauge the heightened emotions and sour mood here realistically before harping on the tired ‘do more’ catchphrase. There is a skeleton of myth in this particular cupboard.