What is causing tension between Pakistan and the Taliban?
The incidents of firing along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border have underlined the growing tension between the two countries. Pakistan, which once nurtured the Taliban, is today facing the displeasure of the Taliban inside the country as well as from Afghanistan, which was most happy when after the departure of America, the whole of Afghanistan was again occupied by the Taliban.
Recently, there has been a firing on the Afghanistan border in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. This is the second such incident this week. Pakistan maintains that the firing took place from an area in Afghanistan, which is very close to an important trade center between the two countries. While the Afghanistan Defense Ministry has blamed Pakistan for starting this skirmish. These incidents are being considered an acute form of tension in Pakistan Taliban Relations. After all, what has happened is that the Taliban which was nurtured by Pakistan is going against it?
Taliban was once a representative of the ISI
There was a time when the Taliban was considered a proxy of Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI whose objective was to control Afghanistan. And now the same Taliban is cheating against Pakistan like doing ‘Ehsaan Faramoshi’. The Chaman Spin Boldak crossing between the two countries has been closed for a week due to incidents of firing along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in the Balochistan region.
Pak-Taliban problem
Apart from this, the daily skirmishes and disputes of Tereek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Pakistan are visible as a direct example of the sourness between the two sides. Taliban is not cracking down on TTP as per Pakistan’s wish and TTP is going to have clashes with the Pakistani army. All this is pointing towards the deteriorating relations of Pakistan Taliban for the last few months.
The capture of Afghanistan and the hope of Pakistan
When the Taliban captured Kabul in August last year as soon as America left, Pakistan was the happiest country at that time. He felt that he had achieved the goal for which he had nurtured the Taliban for so many decades. In such a situation, it was only natural that Pakistan expected that it would be able to deal with the problem of TTP effectively.
Chaman, the area of Balochistan on the Pak-Afghan border where trade activities take place between the two countries, has been closed for the last week. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
TTP’s own history
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP in Pakistan has its own separate story. The highest level of armed militancy in a long time was reached when TTP fighters carried out a massacre at an army school in Peshawar in December 2014. After coming into existence in 2007, TTP has killed 7500 people in more than 3000 attacks, of which 2500 are police or army people.
When the Taliban came to power
Only after the Taliban came to power, it has not tolerated any kind of interference in the domestic affairs of Afghanistan by Pakistan. The border dispute that has been going on between Pakistan-Afghanistan since the beginning still persists because the Taliban also does not accept the Durand Line which is called the Pak-Afghan border. Whenever fencing is done on this border, then the border dispute arises again.
Since taking over Afghanistan, the Taliban has been moving away from Pakistan. (file photo)
Growing problems for Pakistan
Presently, the situation has become such that by sealing its borders, Pakistan is putting pressure on Afghanistan, which is already economically weak, by closing trade routes with it. With this, Pakistan hopes that the Taliban can accept its security demands. Pakistan also alleges that the Taliban is giving shelter to those working against Pakistan. At the same time, Pashtuns also live in both areas of the border, due to which it is not a difficult task to go across, who themselves do not consider the border to be correct. It is beneficial for TTP.
All efforts by Pakistan to negotiate peacefully have proved unsuccessful. Afghani Taliban has not taken strict steps against TTP. The first attacks on the Taliban were carried out by the US from the soil of Pakistan. The Taliban has not forgotten this thing yet. Whether it is the objection to the import of wheat from India, or the decision not to meet Pakistani diplomats, the Taliban is moving away from Pakistan. At the same time, the loss of going away from Pakistan will be more for the Taliban, who do not have support at the international level. Overall, the tension is proving to be harmful to both countries.
