Pakistan is Concerned as India’s Diplomatic Engagement with Taliban Raises

As Afghanistan under Taliban control increasingly opens up diplomacy with India, Pakistan’s military and political establishment must reassume its confrontational attitude toward the West. The development comes at a time when Pakistan has carried out aerial bombings in Afghanistan that claimed the lives of 46 people and escalated tensions between Islamabad and Kabul.

Several analysts based in Pakistan including Amir Rana point out that Islamabad’s current policy of confrontation has been ineffective. This is especially scary for Pakistan, as TTP continues threatening operations from Afghan territory. Secretiveness is preferable at the moment in Islamabad for devising an alternative strategy that could potentially include dealing with the Taliban in Kandahar, where the Taliban originate from.

Any neighboring nation, especially the security establishment of Pakistan, is more uncomfortable with Afghanistan’s increasingly friendly ties with India due to their recent meeting between Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Taliban’s Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Dubai recently. Some argue that Pakistan must shift from starting a war to negotiation; perhaps Pakistan should use regional friends to solve some of the security issues concerning the TTP on its western border.