Violence at Chaman

It seems to be a never-ending saga with repeated episodes being played in front of our eyes. Pakistan has been involved in the ‘war against terror’ for over two decades now. December is already a gruesome reminder of the tragedies thoughtless policies and unrelenting terrorism have wreaked on our people – both in the APS tragedy of 2014, and in the 1971 war that led to the country losing one part. The scars left behind have been deep, and the violence has been unrelenting, especially during the last two decades. We have a National Action Plan which appears to be dormant. We have a National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) that need some kick-starting once again. And now the past few months have seen renewed terrorist activity inside Pakistan, which is being compounded by cross-border attacks from Afghanistan. On Dec 15, one person was killed and a dozen injured on the Pakistani side of the border in Chaman. This was the result of intense firing by the Afghan security forces for the second time in a week. This is undoubtedly ‘uncalled-for aggression’. These attacks have not spared the civilian populations in the bordering areas.

The worst part is that the Afghan Taliban’s unrecognized government has been in power for over 16 months now in Kabul but it has neither been able (or been willing) to stop such attacks from its soil nor has it been able to give any sense of reassurance to the world that it has given up its historical tendency for violence. After each such incident, assurances are given but then we are back to square one. In fact, no Afghan government in the past has fulfilled these assurances, but -given the way Pakistan has tried to help the current Afghan regime – one would have thought things would change. Any talks held too don’t seem to have led to much of a shift in the status quo. Even Pakistan’s diplomatic staff is now not safe in Kabul, the attack on Pakistan’s charge d’affaires a couple of weeks ago an example of this.

The priority for both countries should be finding solutions rather than just holding talks that we have been doing for long. There is a noticeable disconnect between the public pronouncements that are made and the realities on the ground. The shelling and firing incidents at the border near Chaman are just one example of violations committed from across the border. If Pakistan ends up evacuating border areas and has to declare an emergency at the DHQ hospital Chaman, these are not trivial matters. The Afghan government must make sure it puts an end to this aggression – once and for all.