The once friendly relationship has now turned into enmity, with tension fuelling attacks and counter-attacks between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Taliban-led Government in Kabul has alleged that eight civilians, including children, were killed in recent Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan’s Khost and Paktika Provinces. However, Islamabad has claimed that the target of the Pakistani Air Force was a base of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group near the Pak-Afghan border. According to Islamabad, the activities of TTP and other terrorist outfits have increased in Pakistan since the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan (for the second time) on August 15, 2021. Kabul has rejected Islamabad’s allegation, stating that the terrorist outfits have set up their bases in Pakistan, and not in Afghanistan!

Pakistan, which played a key role in the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s, has backed the Sunni group, with an ideology comprising elements of Pashtun Nationalism and the Deobandi current of Islamic Fundamentalism, for years. When the Taliban came to power in the late 1990s (for the first time), Pakistan was one of the few countries to formally recognise their Government in Kabul. However, Islamabad was forced to stand against the Taliban under the pressure of Washington DC after the terrible terrorist attack in the US on September 11, 2001 (popularly known as 9/11). For more than two decades, Pakistan has strategically played a dual role – on the one hand supporting the US in its War against Terror and on the other providing behind-the-scenes support to the Taliban.

When the US invaded Afghanistan in 2001, Pakistan had no other option, but to help the US Forces. It is in this context that the TTP was born in 2007 as the Pakistani jihadists waged a war against the US in South Asia. Since the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan (and the rise of the Taliban) in 2021, it has become increasingly difficult for Pakistan to maintain cordial ties with the neighbouring country.

According to defence experts, the resurgence of the Taliban has also given strength to the TTP. Although the Afghan Taliban and the TTP (or the Pakistani Taliban) are two different organisations, they have ideological similarities. Just like the Afghan Taliban, the TTP wants to make Pakistan a staunch Islamic Nation free from the US influence. Afghanistan continues to support the TTP despite Pakistan’s warning and it has led to a deterioration in bilateral ties in recent times.

Islamabad’s decision to deport millions of Afghan refugees at the end of 2023, too, has increased the bitterness between the two countries. Although Afghanistan’s relationship with Pakistan has deteriorated, ties between India and Afghanistan have been relatively stable since 2021.

New Delhi fears that the prolonged tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan may turn the region into a terrorist hotbed, the spark of which could reach across the border into India.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das