New Delhi: The Netherland-based think tank expressed concerns about the rising conflicts between Pakistan and the Taliban at the border. The Amsterdam-based think tank said that “The escalating conflict between Pakistan and the Taliban could pose serious challenges to regional peace.”
The relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have worsened more in the last few months as the Taliban comes to the authority.
Despite ample support, a rift has emerged between the two over the growing terror activity of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Recently, in the attack by the TTP since the Taliban grabbed power, at least five Pakistani soldiers were killed at a border post by firing from neighboring Afghanistan.
Islamabad had painstakingly nurtured and harbored anti-Pakistan terrorist groups and allowed them the freedom to launch cross-border attacks against Pakistani forces and interests from within Afghan territory, the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS) said.
Taliban, on its part, denied that the firing had come from within Afghan territory, EFSAS reported.
On attacks of Baloch people, the Amsterdam-based Think-Tank said, “attacks by Baloch groups based in Afghanistan against Pakistani and Chinese interests in Baluchistan have also become more frequent, more sophisticated, and more lethal.”
The TTP attack last weekend came just a day after the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which seeks self-determination for the Baloch people and separation of Baluchistan province from Pakistan, claimed to have killed over 100 Pakistani soldiers in two separate attacks on Frontier Corps bases in Baluchistan’s Panjgur and Noshki districts, EFSAS reported.
Although the Pakistan Army only acknowledged a much smaller number of casualties in the BLA attacks, the figure of 9 soldiers was nonetheless substantial, the think tank said.
The BLA is strongly opposed to Chinese investment in Baluchistan, including at the port of Gwadar. It believes that the Pakistan army, hand in glove with China, is colonizing and exploiting the region’s rich mineral and energy resources, EFSAS reported.
(_Vinayak)