​No end to suffering: On the Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict

As the U.S.-Israel war against Iran rages, India’s western frontiers have flared up, intensified by recent clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan forces on the Durand Line. On Tuesday, Pakistani airstrikes tragically killed at least 400 Afghans at a drug treatment and rehabilitation centre. Pakistan, which has accused the Taliban administration of harbouring the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and supporting its terror attacks on Pakistan, denied Afghanistan’s accusations, claiming that its strikes had only targeted “military installations”. Despite the denial, it is clear from visuals that the Omid Rehabilitation Facility in Kabul was destroyed. In an extremely strong statement, India condemned what it called Pakistan’s “cowardly” targeting of a hospital, rejecting its denial as a cover-up for a “massacre”, and called for an international inquiry. The Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict, which has been simmering for over a year, escalated in February when the Pakistan Air Force struck Taliban bases in Kabul, Kandahar, and Paktia in what it called Operation Ghazab Lil Haq (Righteous Fury). Tensions have also risen after TTP attacks killed 11 soldiers and a child in Bajaur and 32 people in an Islamabad mosque following a suicide bombing. Pakistan has also been angered by closer India-Afghanistan ties and New Delhi’s hosting of Taliban ministers, accusing the Taliban of turning Afghanistan into an “Indian colony” — a turnaround from its support in 2021, for the Taliban’s rise to power in Kabul. Apart from its continued tensions and hatred of India, and now Afghanistan, Pakistan possibly benefits from the global focus on the U.S.-Israel war with Iran. The U.S.’s actions here and its statement expressing support for Pakistan’s “right to defend itself against Taliban attacks”, has also imbued Pakistan’s generals with a sense of impunity to strike targets in Afghanistan at will.

New Delhi could be permitted some sense of ‘payback’ as Islamabad’s fight against cross-border terrorism from Afghanistan mirrors India’s problems with Pakistan. The constraints on Pakistan’s military in a two-front situation with India and Afghanistan, compounded by a transnational war on the third front, may also be the source of some relief for India. With no dialogue with Pakistan, and the limited dialogue with a Taliban regime it deals with but does not formally recognise, India’s diplomatic role in the conflict is limited. However, it must enlist other SCO members that have been concerned over the outbreak of an “open war” between Pakistan and Afghanistan, to intervene. The region is already suffering from trade, energy and travel restrictions as a result of the West Asia war, to risk more volatility and loss of lives, particularly in Afghanistan, where the vulnerable, especially women, have suffered the most.