Clash on Durand Line

JUST before dawn on Monday, Pakistan’s fighter jets struck at two provinces in Afghanistan, a country that it once fondly believed would provide strategic depth in its existential war against India. The Pakistan military justified its infringement of airspace controlled by an erstwhile ally by claiming that its patience was stretched thin by a spate of terror attacks plotted in Afghanistan. The boot, it seems, is firmly on the other foot. For over three decades, exactly the same charges have been levelled against the ISI and the Pakistan army by India, Iran and the Afghan governments led by Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani.

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In a twist of irony, Pakistani jets struck areas that were once the ISI’s favourite breeding grounds in Afghanistan for exporting terror to Kashmir and other places. Now, the ISI says anti-Pakistan militants are using this rugged terrain as safe havens. India has been accusing Pakistan of using calibrated terrorism by infiltrating militants as and when violence was to be stepped up.

For a country that has bet on one horse — terrorism — to push its foreign policy goals, it must be galling to be given a taste of its own medicine. Pakistan has blamed India for goading Afghanistan-based militants into attacking its vital installations and soldiers. This charge, though, has only further irked the Taliban, who say they are trying their best to rein in militants. It all sounds familiar to Indian ears. Unless it turns over a new leaf, Pakistan will continue to suffer the misery its military establishment has inflicted on others in the past.