Kabul needs to put its house in order

The rising instability in Afghanistan owes to both external and internal factors with strong evidence coming to the fore that terrorists have support base inside Afghan Army and police from north to south.

This was revealed by defence circles the other day during an interaction with The News in which the Kandahar blast and other grave occurrences were also discussed. It was in the Kandahar blast that the UAE ambassador was killed.

According to the sources, the Kandahar blast and various other incidents of similar nature were mounted from within Afghanistan and facilitators of acts of terrorism were very much located mainly within the Afghan territory.

The sources added, “Moreover, the support base up in the north could have networking with other countries also, but the major problem lies within Afghanistan as a society that is not cohesive.

 In order to attain peace and stability, Afghans will have to change from within or else no amount of aid or outside support will work. And the escalation and internal facilitation and support base with internal and external roots are supposed to act as eye-openers for the main player in the region, the United States, whose policy makers need to have a serious review.”

Defence circles were of the considered opinion that it was imperative for the Afghan government to focus more on the internal dimensions of the conflict and put its own house in order rather than blaming Pakistan, the same brotherly country that has treated Afghanistan like a real younger brother.

Pakistan’s incumbent civilian and military leadership, under the command of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, have extended continuous support to Kabul in combating the menaces of terrorism and extremism within the framework of good Pak-Afghan relations. 

Another factor highlighted by the sources is that there are at least 30,000 ghost soldiers in ANSF and many more are aligned to warlords with tribal loyalties.