By: Suraya Raiszada
Following surge in Taliban attacks on a number of Afghanistan’s northern provinces, a number of political parties in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by debating on current situation of Afghanistan and holding a tribal jirga in Charsada city criticized Pakistan government’s policy towards Afghanistan.
Expressing concern over increasing violence by the Taliban group in Afghanistan, Pakistan political parties say that thousands of terrorists and fighters are entering Afghanistan from Pakistan on daily basis.
In the tribal jirga attended by members of Pashtun Protection Movement, Awami National Party, leaders of the Labour Party, civil society activists and political experts, leader of Awami National Party Emal Wali Khan delivered speech and said that thousands of armed fighters were entering Afghanistan from Pakistan with the name of ‘Jihad’, while they were going for destruction and bloodshed.
“These days, dead bodies of terrorists are brought to Pakistan, where they are buried with full honour under the national flag of Pakistan. Why do we close our eyes? Where are the safe havens of Taliban?,” Emal said.
The organizers of this tribal jirga say the jirga was aimed to find a way for ending the current war in the region and soil of Pashtuns as presence of terrorist groups is a serious threat to not only Afghanistan but to the whole region and world.
This comes amid increasing insecurities and surge in Taliban attacks in Afghanistan. Previously, Afghanistan government had repeatedly blamed Pakistan for interfering in internal affairs of Afghanistan and supporting terrorist groups, providing them with safe havens and funding them financially.
On the other hand, United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in its recent meeting has condemned Taliban’s increasing violence and attacks on provincial capitals and asked the group to focus on peace talks with Afghanistan government.
Following the UNSC’s recent statement, a number of social media activists in Afghanistan and some foreign countries have launched a hashtag calling for the international community to exert sanction on Pakistan government. In this campaign, the social activists have also asked the United Nations Security Council to impose sanction on Pakistan for its proxy war in Afghanistan.
Such tribal jirgas had also held in the past and criticized the Pakistani government for its policy towards Afghanistan, asking the government of the country to stop interfering in internal affairs of Afghanistan.
This comes after Chris Alexandar, former Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan, by criticizing the Pakistan government for its proxy war had said the international community should impose sanction on Pakistan for its proxy war in Afghanistan.
With seriously criticizing Pakistan’s policy towards Afghanistan, former Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan had said the real decision-makers among negotiating team of the Taliban group were not the Taliban but Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
In his tweet, he had said that war would soon end if Pakistan came under sanction.
A number of Afghan experts by criticizing the Pakistani government say the people and government of Afghanistan have clear evidence that dozens of fighters that have been killed in recent fighting in Afghanistan have been citizens of Pakistan.
Rahmatullah Nabil, former chairman of Afghanistan National Directorate of Security (NDS), says Pakistan’s ISI has sent about 600 Jaish-ul-Adl militants from Dalbandin, Noshki, Mashkeel and Panjgur of Balochistan, to Nimroz, Herat and Farah provinces of Afghanistan with all military equipment, in order to help the Afghan Taliban in fighting. Based on all this evidence, it is time that the international community particularly the United Nations Security Council should impose sanction on Pakistan for supporting terrorist groups and its proxy war in Afghanistan, where dozens of innocent civilians are killed on daily basis.