Taliban’s ghost: Here is why Pakistan and Afghanistan can’t escape their shared war |
The armed clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan in October along the 2,640-km-long Durand Line seriously aggravated the chronic instability in this region. Friends of both countries took action to prevent a further deterioration of the situation.
The Taliban, which resisted the US, can resist Pakistan’s power, which would worry those who have Pakistan’s welfare in mind. Turkey and Qatar are mediating a dialogue between the two countries, which reached a ceasefire agreement on October 18-19. However, fresh clashes erupted just a week later, resulting in casualties on both sides.
Türkiye, which has played a role in the peace process in Afghanistan as the conflict there has unfolded over the years, is pushing for the ceasefire to be sustained and has announced that a higher-level Afghanistan-Pakistan is scheduled for November 6 to finalize how the agreement will be monitored.
Pakistan’s defense minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, has stated that Islamabad’s participation in the talks was at the request of Qatar and Turkey and insisted that any agreement must include ”clear, verifiable, and effective action” by Afghanistan against groups using Afghan territory to attack Pakistan. If the expectation is that the Taliban will physically act against the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), often referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, this is unlikely to be the case.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, asserted that the Taliban desires good relations with its neighbors, including Pakistan, and that both parties have agreed to meet again and will discuss the outstanding issues.
The history of Pakistan-Afghanistan tensions is long. For decades, Pakistan has been involved in the internal affairs of its neighbor. Islamabad has a long history of intervening in Afghanistan, either to help oust a government there that it could not control or to help install a government there that it could control.
In a sense, this was inevitable because the Durand Line, which was drawn by the British colonial power in 1893, split the Afghan tribes populating the region artificially. The Afghans have never accepted this line. Fencing and checkpoints by Pakistan to assert territorial sovereignty and control the traditional free movement of people across the border have been a source of tension.
Instability in Pashtun-dominated Afghanistan affects Pakistan, and the other way around — instability in........