Despite sharing of evidence, Kabul not doing its job

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has recently shared evidence with the Afghan side about RAW-NDS subversive activities in Balochistan and KP areas linked to its western border and elsewhere, but to no avail as the other side has serious capacity issues, according to Defence Minister Khawaja Asif. 

“The Afghan side should not take the situation (aftermath of the second Quetta carnage within three months) lightly,” he cautioned. “The Afghan government seems badly bogged down in Taliban-controlled large areas of Afghanistan”, the defence minister told The News as feelings of grief and anger spread across the country after the late Monday night terrorist attack on police recruits in Quetta  sixth such terrorism incident in this year in Balochistan.

Pakistan’s civil and military leadership rushed to Quetta on Tuesday and met behind closed doors to review the situation and come up with an effective response. The Pakistani side, it was learnt, viewed the recent terrorist attacks, especially in Quetta, and their linkages with elements inside Afghanistan as a “massive failure” of the Afghan government to act against such elements. The Afghan Army, and especially NATO’s inaction, was also resented. 

Some security officials, however, opine that the persistent inaction on the Afghan side is by design to assist and allow the RAW to train, fund and operate such groups without any hindrance on the Afghan soil. They also point fingers towards Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Alimi, an affiliate of the ISIS or Daesh, elements operating out of Afghanistan’s Ghazni, Qandahar and Zabul areas, for the latest Quetta attack. They opine that after the elimination of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi leadership from Pakistan due to the assassination of its chief Malik Ishaq and his companions in 2015, its remnants are being trained and financed by the RAW-NDS collusion, and they strike soft targets in Pakistan these days. And Pakistanis are made to suffer through incidents like Police Training Centre and Quetta Hospital attacks. 

Security officials say the same banned militant outfit – Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (having transformed into a Daesh affiliate from an earlier Al-Qaeda subsidiary) has been engaged in sectarian attacks on the Hazara community in Quetta since long.

Khawaja Asif, meanwhile, stressed an effective management on the country’s border with Afghanistan, terming the traditional view of the Afghan leadership regarding non-acceptance of the Durand Line obsolete and not acceptable. “An effective border management will work for both Pakistan and Afghanistan. The situation at the moment is that Pakistanis visiting Afghanistan adhere to international passport control and visa, but the other side doesn’t do it. As a result, we cannot effectively do screening because of the presence of a large number of Afghan refugees, especially in KP and Balochistan,” the defence minister pointed out.

“There are almost 200-plus crossing points on the Pak-Afghan border. Around 18 have effective management and only 9 are most frequented. The Operation Zarb-e-Azb is a huge success that has resulted in flushing out terrorists from Fata and elsewhere. But the same elements have sought refuge in border areas inside Afghanistan and are acting against us with impunity,” Khawaja Asif said.