Pakistan Is Paying a High Price for Its Taliban Strategy
There was always going to be blowback.
Source: AFP/Getty Images
A few days after the Taliban rolled into the Afghan capital in 2021, the head of Pakistan’s powerful intelligence service — sipping tea in a Kabul hotel — told the media: “Don’t worry, everything will be OK.” Four years on, everything is not OK. Dozens of soldiers from both sides have been killed along the two countries’ disputed border, and emissaries are in Istanbul testily hammering out an agreement to step back from further confrontation.
The outbreak of violence came after the Pakistani air force struck targets in Kabul, apparently in an attempt to assassinate the leader of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, which has long been the nation’s most serious internal threat. In September, the TTP killed 12 soldiers in the tribal Pashtun belt, prompting defense minister Khwaja Asif to declare that “enough is enough.”