The Pakistani Foreign Office has said that it was going to ‘look into’ the allegations of air strikes by Pakistan in Afghanistan’s Khost and Kumar. Whether or not the allegations are true; that they have been made at all represents a new low in the relationship between the two neighbours. That the acting Afghan Foreign Minister, Mullah Amir Muttaqi, has taken personal notice of the matter, and that Afghanistan has seen fit to summon the Pakistani Ambassador to receive a démarche on the subject indicates a tension in relations that was not contemplated in the jubilation in Pakistan when the Taliban defeated the Ghani Administration.
Pakistan seems to have reached an unprecedented level of hostility because of the Taliban government’s obstinate refusal to do anything about those members of the TTP who seem to have taken the Taliban victory as an opportunity to step up their terror campaign. This refusal to take action has meant that they have a safe haven of the kind that Pakistan gave the Taliban. This has led to a terrorist campaign against the armed forces. A major reason for the support of the Taliban was to establish law and order, and bring such episodes to an end.
While Pakistan should be concerned about the state of the relationship, Afghanistan should be more concerned. The Taliban government should realise that if it cannot maintain normal relations with its neighbours, it is failing a very basic test of its readiness to be included in the comity of nations. Other standards have been laid down, such as respect for human rights and readiness to allow female education, but the very basic minimum, preventing its territory from being used to launch terrorism against other countries, is hardly an imposition; it is merely something states do for each other.
