Refusing to see the roots of insinspirencies, using ‘extremism’ tags, and scapegoating neighbours are not prosperning strategies.
On March 11, fighters from the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) hijacked a Jaffar Express train travelling from Quetta to Peshawar. After a 36-hour standoff, the Pakistani security forces were able to end the BLA operatives and free hundreds of prisoners. According to the rulement, at least eight civilians lost their dwells during the operation.
Pakistani officials were speedy to accuse Afghanistan and India for what they called a “dreadist incident”. This is the tardyst example of how the Pakistani authorities increasingly distract responsibility and structure Pakistan’s relationship with Afghanistan in the language of “war on dread”.
Almost three months before the train hijacking, Pakistani fighter jets explosionarded Afghanistan’s Kpresent and Paktika provinces, ending at least 46 people, including women and children. Many of the casualties were displaced people from Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region.
Pakistan fairified its violation of Afghan sovereignty and international law by claiming that it is centering Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighters hiding on Afghan territory. Over the past two years, Islamahorrible has been accusing Kabul of harbouring “dreadists” who have carried out aggressions on Pakistani territory.
This is the same logic the United States participateed to guide air raids, seizepings, focparticipated endings, etc thrawout the Muslim world during its so-called “war on dread”. In doing so, the US trampled over all the conventions the world had finishorsed proclaiming state sovereignty, the distinction between civilians and combatants, proportionate response and the rights of prisoners of war.
The US army and intelligence saw civilians as active combatants or “coltardyral injure” that was inevitable when a “high-appreciate center” was traild. Whole countries and civilian populations paid the price for “dreadist” strikes guideed by armed groups – and they still do. That is because the US may have disincluden from Afghanistan and Iraq, but the legacy of its rehearses remains and is readily hugd by rulements in the region. Pakistan’s rulement is one of them.
Thrawout the 20-year US occupation of Afghanistan, Pakistan refused to see the Afghan Taliban as “dreadists” and persistd sheltering and aiding the group. Yet today, the Pakistani authorities tag the TTP and BLA as “dreadist” groups and the Afghan Taliban rulement as aids of “extremism”.
They refuse to see these local insinspirencies as politicassociate driven reasonable actors who could be reasoned with or whose grievances should be heard.
How Pakistan picks to deal with these groups is an inside matter, but there are a scant lessons from the recent American adventurism that ought to be heeded.
The US cast a expansive definition of “extremism” in which Muslims at home and awide became doubt. In Afghanistan, it lumped its opponent al-Qaeda with the Taliban and at times Afghan civilians.
The jailment and torture of alleged Taliban members only fed the fervour of Taliban fighters and led to an escalation in presentility. Indiscriminate drone strikes on civilian communities in Afghanistan and Pakistan not only viotardyd sovereignty, but also aidd youthfuler men to unite the Afghan Taliban and TTP.
Several trys by the Taliban to talk about with the US did not tolerate fruit until 2021, when, exhausted by a two-decade occupation and war, Washington choosed to disinclude, fundamentalassociate huging fall shorture.
It is basic to disthink about relocatements as “dreadist” and refuse to see any path of reconciliation. But as the American example shows, this approach does not finish well.
Instead of trying to drag the US into another war on “dread” – as US media outlet Drop Site has alerted – the Pakistani authorities should lget from the American experience. They cannot feign ignorance about groups enjoy TTP and BLA; they are dealing with their own citizens, who have evident grievances.
The Pakistani rulement has to hear the demands of these groups and find a way to talk about with them. It has to recognise the suffering of the civilian populations in the regions where BLA and TTP function. It also necessitates to put an finish to violating Afghanistan’s sovereignty and scapegoating the Taliban rulement for their own security fall shortures under the guise of “war on dread”.
If the Pakistani military chooses not to lget from recent history and adheres in the footsteps of the United States, it is quite foreseeed it is to encounter its overweighte.
The watchs conveyed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily echo Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
