By Sajjad Shaukat
Waging a prolonged war in Afghanistan,
the US and other NATO
countries have realized that after the withdrawal of foreign troops, Afghanistan
would be thrown in an era of uncertainly and civil war. They recognize the fact
and terrorism or stability in Pakistan
and Afghanistan
is interrelated. Therefore, US-led developed nations which also spent billions
of dollars for the development of Afghanistan
have repeatedly agreed that without Islamabad’s
help, stability cannot be achieved there. Unfortunately, India does not intend see peace in that country
and is undermining regional stability by creating unrest in Afghanistan and
some other countries, and by sabotaging their cordial relations.
It is notable that on the direction of Pakistan’s
Chief of Army Stafff General Raheel Sharif, country’s superior intelligence
agency, ISI done hard to bring the Afghan Taliban factions to the negotiating
table to conduct talks with the Afghan government. In this regard, Pakistan
Foreign Office said, “A meeting hosted by Pakistan between the Afghan High
Peace Council (HPC), the body tasked with opening negotiations and
Tehreek-e-Taliban Afghanistan representatives in Murree (On July 8, this
year)-an Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process-the representatives of
China and the USA also participated in the meeting. The participants expressed
their collective desire to bring peace to Afghanistan and the region-agreed
to continue talks through the next meetings.”
India which has been making attempts to foil the dialogue
between the Afghan rulers and the Afghan Taliban is creating an impression that
some groups like Haqqani outfit did not take part in the new talks. While, the US, China
and Pakistan are jointly
working to facilitate the process so as to bring peace both in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the whole region.
In fact, New Delhi is
destabilizing the regional countries in general and Afghanistan
and Pakistan
in particular. In order to obtain its secret designs, aimed at augmenting
Indian hegemony in the region, India
is foiling the peace process between Afghanistan
and Pakistan
by managing terrorist attacks like the recent assaults in both the countries.
In this respect, former Chief of Indian secret agency RAW,
Amarjit Singh Dulat disclosed on June 4, this year that Indian intelligence
agencies have over the years paid money to militants and separatists in the
Indian occupied-Kashmir and Pakistan.
However, the statement of RAW chief is not surprising, as
recently, Indian Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar and even its Prime Minister
Narendra Modi Modi openly confirmed assistance to anti-Pakistan elements including
separation of East Pakistan.
It is mentionable that Indian former Army Chief Gen. VK
Singh also confessed that during his tenure, he supervised special army unit,
Tactical Support Division (TSD) on the instructions of the then defence
minister to sponsor subversive activities in Pakistan, particularly Balochistan.
These blatant admissions clearly prove that New Delhi has been sponsoring worse kinds of terrorism
inside Pakistan
by promoting sub-nationalists. New Delhi has
been exploiting these entities locally and abroad as proxies against Pakistan.
Nevertheless, Indian RAW has well-established its network
in Afghanistan, and is fully assisting cross-border incursions and
terror-activities in various regions of Pakistan through Baloch separatist elements
and anti-Pakistan groups like Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA), Jundullah and
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) including their affiliated outfits. They also
abducted and killed many Chinese and Iranian nationals. On a number of
occasions, these insurgent groups claimed responsibility for their acts of
sabotage.
RAW is making efforts to weaken Afghanistan,
Tibetan regions of China and
Pakistan,
especially Balochistan by arranging the subversive activities, promoting
acrimonious sense of dissent, political volatility, sectarian violence and
arousing sentiments of separatism.
It is notable that New Delhi
which has already invested billion of dollars in Afghanistan, also signed a
wide-ranging strategic agreement with that country on October 5, 2011. And, the
then President Hamid Karzai had also signed another agreement with India to obtain
Indian arms and weapons. While, under the cover of these agreements, India has further strengthened its grip in Afghanistan. By
taking advantage of lawlessness in Afghanistan,
India is up to its usual
tirade to foment an environment by conducting terrorist attacks in that country
to prove that Pakistan is
creating trouble for Afghanistan.
It is worth-mentioning that Gen. Raheel accompanied by the
DG of ISI went to Kabul
on December 17, 2014. During his meeting with his Afghan counterpart, President
Ashraf Ghani and the ISAF commander, he presented the evidence of linkage
between the massacre of children at Peshawar
school and TTP sanctuaries in Afghanistan.
He also asked about action against the TTP and handing over of its chief Mullah
Fazlullah to Pakistan.
In response, Afghan government and US has started taking
action against the TTP. A number of TTP militants have been captured in Afghanistan,
while Fazlullah survived in a drone attack. Meanwhile, Washington has also designated Mullah
Fazullah as a global terrorist and seized his bank accounts.
Now, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani realized that Afghanistan and Pakistan are facing similar
challenges of terrorism and will combat this threat collectively. On May 18,
2015, the two countries signed the security agreement—Pakistan’s ISI and Afghanistan’s National Directorate
of Security (NDS) to share intelligence and conduct coordinated operations
against terrorists. And, frequent visits of Pak-Afghan civil and military
leaders to each other’s country also irritate New Delhi.
Nonetheless, Indian desperation in Afghanistan is increasing in the backdrop of
growing engagements of Pakistan,
Afghanistan, China and US.
Besides, New Delhi
is trying to sabotage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Recent
terror-attacks in Pakistan
and Balochistan might be noted as example. In this connection, Indian backed
Baloch secessionists have been directed to step up their activities on the CPEC
project. Indian RAW has created a heavily funded China-Pakistan specific desk
to target growing Pak-China-Afghanistan relations.
If India
continues its shrewd diplomacy, negative virtues of Afghan political and
bureaucratic circles would not yield any positive effects regarding peace and
stability of Afghanistan.
Their efforts to create mistrust between Islamabad
and Kabul are
condemnable, as it also amounts to degrade and sabotage the global efforts of
achieving peace and stability in the region.
Instead of criticizing the improving relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Hamid Karzai should help
in resolving the irritants which he failed to address during his era of
presidency.
High profile visits between Islamabad
and Kabul would
address the issue of cross-border militancy. They should discuss the failure of
Afghan government to hand over of terrorist Fazlullah to Pakistan and
better border management, which are direly needed for stable and secure
environment. A harmonized Pak-Afghan relationship is the guarantee to draw
maximum economic benefits for the future generations, and Pakistan is keen to see return of peace to Afghanistan.
Recent Pakistan-Afghanistan rapprochement-initiatives along
with evolving Chinese role in Afghanistan
for peace, economic and political developments of Afghanistan are viewed as positive
steps with regional assurance. All the existing ethnic groups of Afghanistan are
now stakeholders in the governance of country.
Afghan Government is also responsible for early
repatriation and rehabilitation of Afghan refugees, languishing in Pakistan. So,
this issue must be resolved on priority.
Returning to our earlier discussion, India is weary of growing cooperation among Afghanistan, China
and Pakistan.
To hinder this trilateral cooperation, New Delhi
is clearly bent upon creating unfavourable situation through her proxies by
targeting China, Pakistan and Afghanistan. And Pakistan seeks stability in Afghanistan, which is essential for both the
countries including China, Iran, US-led
western countries and other regional states. But, India
wants instability in Afghanistan,
which favours its clandestine aims. Hence, India is undermining regional
stability by applying secret diplomacy.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is
author of the book: US
vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in
International Relations
Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com
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