Though the firing on Thursday at the Chaman border crossing was less deadly than that four days before, as only one person was killed and 12 injured, as opposed to the four killed earlier, when 16 were also injured, the latest incident made nonsense of Defence Minister Khwaja Asif’s claim that the Afghan government had apologized for the incident and had assured that it would not be repeated. Well, it has. What does the Pakistan government plan to do about it?
All sorts of doubts are raised. The biggest doubt is whether the Kabul government is on board, or whether the local authorities have found the freedom to act on their own, in contradiction to the centrally determined policy with respect to a neighbour. In either case, the implications are frightening. In the first case, the hostility of the Afghan government rudely belies the triumphalist rhetoric witnessed in Pakistan when the Taliban returned to power last year. In the second, Pakistan would find that it is pointless talking to the Taliban, because sitting in Kabul, they are unable to influence events in Chaman. FATA MNA Mohsin Dawar has said that the incident is the result of a gradual escalation. If that is the case, then clearly no one on the Pakistan side was successful at preventing the escalation. A befitting reply must be given, but the consequences of engaging in gunfire on the Western border can only prove a morale-booster for the enemy on the eastern, where disputes, the main being Kashmir, remain. The reports of crossfire between the two armed forces can only be disquieting. Both sides have engaged in a blame game, with both armed forces claiming that the other fired first.
The influence of smugglers cannot be ruled out. The crossings are rendered all the more crucial because of the recent fencing of the Durand Line. However, the closing of the crossings cannot work in the smugglers’ favour, who have long used the Chaman crossing to bring goods across the border. Pakistan has done enough handwringing, and must proceed to a solution. It will not do merely to extract another apology, so it must study the matter objectively, and resolve the issue, even if it means bruising some egos on its own side. The object must be to stop more people dying, and bringing back the Chaman crossing to its place as a crucial entrepôt, instead of the war zone it seems in danger of becoming.
