Pakistan’s pressure tactics teaching Kabul to live without Islamabad: Report

Islamabad/Kabul, June 13 (IANS) Pakistan spent decades pursuing a doctrine of strategic depth, using proxy fighters to maintain influence in Afghanistan and ease pressure along its Western frontier.

The situation has since shifted dramatically, with relations with the Afghan Taliban deteriorating into open hostilities marked by frequent border clashes, including cross-border air strikes earlier this year and some of the most serious confrontations in recent years, a report has said.

According to a report in an online magazine, ‘The Diplomat’, Pakistani military action against Afghanistan has worsened the country’s economic crisis while enabling Moscow to cement its influence.

“In late May, in a hall outside Moscow, Taliban Defence Minister Mohammad Yaqoob signed a military agreement with Russia. Two days later, back in Kabul, he promised that no neighbour would again strike Afghan territory with the same confidence. The neighbour he had in mind went unnamed but was obvious: Pakistan,” the report detailed.

It noted that during a May 26 meeting of the security chiefs of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov warned that the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) is actively recruiting citizens of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan, as well as labour migrants inside Russia.

He described covert networks operating across CIS countries, with recruitment, financing, and attack planning already underway. Among those who attended the gathering was the Taliban Defence Minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid.

“Two days after the CIS Security Council session, Russia and the Taliban signed a military-technical cooperation agreement on the sidelines of the International Security Forum, held outside Moscow. Russia’s signatory was Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu; Afghanistan’s was Taliban Defence Minister Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid. Zamir Kabulov, Russia’s Special Envoy for Afghanistan, said that the agreement would focus on repair and restoration of Russian-made military equipment in Afghanistan,” the report said.

Addressing journalists after returning to Kabul, Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid said that Pakistan had been repeatedly carrying out strikes inside Afghan territory in recent months, asserting that Afghanistan would ensure no neighbouring country felt similarly emboldened in the future.

“He acknowledged that Islamabad might have objections to the Moscow agreement, insisting that Afghanistan threatens no one. The shift in tone, delivered immediately after the signing with Russia, signals to Islamabad that Kabul now sees its own leverage,” The Diplomat added.

Highlighting Afghanistan’s efforts to deepen ties with other regional partners following the tensions with Pakistan, the report said, “Each disruption pushes Kabul further toward Iran, India, and Central Asia, and each shift erodes the one form of leverage Pakistan reliably held over Afghanistan. The economic coercion meant to discipline the Taliban is instead teaching Kabul to live without Islamabad.”

–IANS

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