Image Source: nytimes
In the escalating tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir issued a warning to Kabul. While speaking at the Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad on Saturday to graduating cadets, he asked Afghanistan to act firmly against terrorists from its soil.
Munir also blamed militant outfits based in Afghanistan for conducting attacks within Pakistan. The Taliban regime has to "make a choice between peace and chaos", it was made explicitly clear by Islamabad that it would not accept cross-border terrorism anymore.
The chief of the army also threatened that "all proxies using Afghan soil will be raised to dust", meaning that Pakistan would take a strong response against any further hostilities.
The tensions heightened following the claims that Pakistan conducted airstrikes in Kabul over the weekend. Afghanistan retaliated with cross-border attacks. Even though Qatar and Saudi Arabia temporarily brokered a 48-hour truce subsequently extended during scheduled negotiations in Doha the tensions soon escalated.
Fighting resumed on Friday following another Pakistani airstrike that reportedly killed 10 civilians, three of them local Afghan cricketers, Afghan officials said.
Islamabad has consistently accused the Taliban government of harbouring Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants. These militants have been responsible for a series of fatal attacks within Pakistan, including one in recent times in Orakzai district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where 11 soldiers, including a Lieutenant Colonel and a Major, were killed.
The city still denies these claims, asserting that "Afghan soil is not being used against any neighbouring country."
Reuters quoted a Pakistani security official as saying that the ceasefire was struck with the Afghan Taliban and not with the militant organizations that are active in Afghanistan. It casts a question mark over the efficacy of the truce since the militants themselves were not parties to the agreement directly.
Afghanistan's Tolo News meanwhile reported that the airstrikes struck residential areas in Urgun and Barmal districts and claimed heavy civilian casualties.
