The statement issued by Afghanistan’s Taliban government denouncing the recent terrorist attack in the Indian resort of Pahalgam, in Jammu and Kashmir, was eye-opening. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs conveyed condolences to the families of the overwhelmingly Indian victims — 26 civilians — emphasizing that such attacks jeopardize regional security. The implicit rebuke of the terrorists’ handlers in Pakistan has not gone unnoticed.
This is hardly the first sign of the Taliban’s growing estrangement from their erstwhile backers in Pakistan. In fact, by the end of last year, relations had deteriorated enough that Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Muhammad Sadiq Khan, headed to Kabul for talks with senior Taliban leaders, ostensibly to ease tensions. But while he was there, on Dec. 24, the Pakistan Air Force carried out strikes against alleged Pakistani Taliban — officially known as the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — targets in Afghanistan’s Paktika province, killing 46 people. The strike was viewed as retribution for a Dec. 21 TTP attack that resulted in the deaths of 16 Pakistani soldiers.
Three days later, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, who leads Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations directorate, delivered a grim report: Some 383 officers and soldiers in Pakistan’s security forces had lost their lives in counter-terrorism operations over the preceding year. He also claimed that approximately 925 terrorists, including members of the TTP, had been eliminated in around 60,000 intelligence-based operations. The TTP, he pointed out, had been targeting Pakistan and its citizens, while enjoying a safe haven in Afghanistan.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.