Senior analyst and expert on Afghan affairs Rahimullah Yusufzai said that border issues, tensions, and distrust between the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan will continue for the time being, but it will not escalate.
Talking to Pakistan Today Editor Arif Nizami in his talk show DNA on Channel 24, he said a serious verbal jousting and leveling of allegations will continue unabated between the two governments.
He said that Balochistan has always remained a challenging region for Pakistan throughout our history.
“Military operations have happened in Balochistan in the past and Baloch separatists have always been active here. Iran shares a border and has vested interests here; Afghanistan also shares a hotly contested border with the province. Mullah Mansoor was also droned here,” he said and added that this has always been a very restive region and Pakistan faces a lot of ongoing challenges here.
“The performance of the Pakistani government has been disappointing. The drone attack on Mullah Mansoor happened on Saturday, but the government took a long time to verify that, whereas the Americans confirmed his death on the first day,” he said, and added, “The Taliban initially denied the attack, but eventually they also confirmed it. However, the Pakistani government kept waiting.”
Talking about the appointment of the new Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, he said it is strange that the US killed the previous Taliban leader, but now is expecting to talk to Akhundzada. In the prevailing circumstances Taliban won’t be talking to the US, he said.
He further added that if the US had thought that the Taliban would be in disarray and disunited after Mansoor’s death, the Taliban proved them wrong by quickly announcing a new leader, without a hint of in-fighting.
Talking about Pakistan’s policy towards the Taliban, he added that after the collapse of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, most of their leadership fled to Pakistan. Pakistan initially denied their presence, but Prime Minister’s Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz accepted it in March when he was in America, he added.
He said when it comes to attacking the Pakistani Taliban and Al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan there has always been an intelligence sharing with the US; however, when it comes to attacking the Afghan Taliban here, Pakistan is left out in the cold.
Talking about the regional geopolitics he said that the triumvirate of Afghanistan, Iran and India are trying to isolate Pakistan and are strengthening their relationship. Their main goal is that of bypassing Pakistan when it comes to trade routes. They will be utilising the Chabahar Port in order to meet that goal, he said.
