By Sohail
Parwaz
The
things were gradually coming under control on the western front since the
relations with Afghanistan were gearing up positively, however due to some self
created misunderstandings by the Afghan authorities; there was a momentary
hold-up in the relations between the two countries. The strange thing is that
with the slight corrosion in the bilateral relations, out of the blue the
terrorists activities inside Pakistan were at a notable rise which was a clear
warning towards the fact that such heinous acts can’t take place without the
abetment of some unknown elements of the Afghan authorities who still have a
long to have romance with the Indians and their notorious intelligence agency
RAW.
Pakistan,
always had a great regard for the Afghan president Ashraf Ghani and has assured
him Pakistan’s fullest support and so is the response reciprocated back by the
latter however the Karzai loyalists still aggressively functional in the lower
tiers of the Afghan government are incessantly creating hurdles for the sincere
Afghan government. There were few terrorists attack launched in the recent
past, leaving behind the foot prints enough to believe that the terrorists had
a linkage and support by the elements of Afghan intelligence. However the Pak
government and categorically the Pak armed forces have always shown remarkable
tolerance and maturity while reacting on such terrorist acts from across the
border. Pakistan’s foreign affairs advisor Mr. Sartaj Aziz had recently visited
Afghanistan and made it clear to his Afghan counterpart that it’s becoming more
and more hard for Pakistan to tolerate such irritating activities day by day.
Sadly,
the ineffective and weak Afghan authorities didn’t succeed in controlling these
border-crossings and finally the things came to a stage when on Friday,
September 18, 2015, in the wee hours of the morning a group of thirteen to
fourteen terrorists attacked a heavily-guarded Pakistan Air Force base in
Badhaber area on the outskirts of Peshawar killing at least 29 persons posted
at the base, most of them were either in the base’s mosque at that time or were
preparing for the namaz.
Security
officials said the attackers split into three groups after entering the camp,
with two moving to a residential area. The third group approached the mosque
and sprayed worshippers with bullets as they prayed. According to details the
number of casualties was confirmed at 29, of which 15 were martyred in the mosque,
7 while performing ablution in the barracks next to the mosque, three army
persons including one officer, embraced martyrdom while fighting the terrorists
and four civilians employed at the base also met their maker. The encounter
began immediately due to quick response. The attackers were clad in Frontier
Constabulary (FC) uniforms, he said. Confirming the attack, ISPR said a
clearance operation was underway.
While
this analysis is being formed up, the Director General Inter-Services Public
Relations (ISPR) Major General Asim Bajwa has confirmed the fears in a press
conference that the terrorists who attacked Peshawar’s Badhaber airbase’s
mosque came from and were controlled from Afghanistan. Addressing a media
conference, he said the terrorists wanted to go further but were contained by
the quick response force within 50 meter.
The
most alleviating part about this operation against the terrorists is that the
army troops were alert and watchful. Besides that the QRF (Quick Response Force
reached the scene within no time to contain and surround the terrorists in the
area of their choice where Captain Asfand Yar Bukhari took them on as the
sitting ducks while leading his troops from the front and embraced Shahadat.
Following
the attack, keeping up the tradition, Army chief General Raheel Sharif and Air
Chief Sohail Aman immediately reached Peshawar to visit CMH to meet the injured
army and PAF personnel. Later both the chiefs visited Badhaber base to meet the
PAF, army and police troops who defeated the attackers and killed all
terrorists. It looks as if the terrorists had the knowledge about the base
being a radar station and fearing that it was monitoring their cross border, to
and fro moments, and were specifically assigned the task to destroy it and inflict
heavy life and asset losses.
Although
a couple of claims have been made; one through an email to the media by one
Khorasani group, a faction of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) who has owned
the responsibility for the attack while the other was a forecast by the
intelligence agencies who issued a threat alert about a week ago for an attack
on any military installation by Qari Saifullah group. The security official
said initial investigations confirmed that the attackers had traveled in a
vehicle from Bara Tehsil, Khyber Agency to Ghundi area of Jamrud Tehsil.
The
attack is repulsed, area is cleared and the situation is well under control
while the group sent for a carnage met its fate, nevertheless, it is the time
to evaluate and analyse that what could be the possible reasons for such
attempt from across the border, especially when Pakistan is extending its
sincere hand for an all out cooperation with the Afghan government in every
field. An impartial analysis suggests the following reasons:
1.
The Afghan governmental set up is still infected with the Indian influence who
are not happy about their ousting from the Afghan national affairs and are
trying their best to mess up the rapidly improving Pak Afghan relations.
2.
Either Afghan government has still not been able to neutralise the terrorists
who have taken refuge in Afghan territory after being kicked out of FATA or
they are not at all serious about putting them back in their shoes.
3.
The Afghan ‘Kachi Basti’ near Sabzi Mandi Islamabad was recently bulldozed
after the confirmed reports about the terrorists group residing and operating
from there. Some elements of the Afghan government didn’t like that security
action taken by the Pakistan government since it was a heaven and a hub for the
terrorist activities anywhere in Pakistan.
Whatever
the reasons are but one thing is for sure that the Badhaber attack has left
behind a question mark on the Pak Afghan relations. If in the past the Afghan,
ESAF troops and jets could violate Pak air space and land in the name of
chasing and punishing the terrorists who were operating from FATA then what
stops or bound Pakistan from chasing the terrorists and militants operating
from the Afghan soil according to the confirmed reports? Pakistan certainly
reserves the right to chase and chastise the culprits even if our troops have
to go deep inside any neighboring country, may that be Afghanistan or some
other dominion. General Raheel Sharif’s address on the Defense Day that, “May
it be Hot Start or Cold Start, conventional or unconventional war, we are
ready”, was not meant for the Indians only. The earliest the Afghan government
realizes the consequences of such lapses and follies the better it would be in
their own interest.
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