DANGEROUS ESCALATION(S) IN PAKISTAN, AFGHANISTAN AND BALOCHISTAN

 Last week the Pakistani airforce bombed Pashtun insurgents / terrorists / bad guys along the Afghanistan Pakistan border. Eight people were killed including civilians. Afghanistan promptly accused Pakistan of bombing its territory. Pakistan claimed that no it was still inside Pakistani territory. But Afghanistan disputes the border. What is not disputed is that the dead were all Pushtun people.

So in retaliation for the airstrike, yesterday (or the day before) the Pushtun insurgents attacked yet another Pakistani army convoy along the border area. 12 Pakistani soldiers were killed.

There are about 50 million Pashtun people in the world of which about 15 million have their own country Afghanistan (they form the solid majority) but the larger number of Pushtuns of around 25 - 30 million live just inside the Pakistan border (along a very disputed Pak-Afghan border) and they too have their own country - in Afghanistan. 

So you can see this is going to be a major problem.

Here is a short video.

 As the video says things are also heating up in Balochistan - another growing troublespot inside Pakistan. 2024 is already a very bad year for Pakistan.

The saying that Pakistan is an Army with a country still holds true. The Army still calls the shots.

The Punjabi dominated Pakistani Army has been on a war footing since the partition from India in 1947. The Army has always prepared itself to face India as its main enemy. Pakistani military planning has always been to fight large scale theatre warfare against India in the plains of Rajasthan, in the disputed areas of Kashmir, in the Punjab and in the air. 

India as an enemy galvanised Pakistan's multi-ethnic people and the Islam versus Hindu divide provided a religious fervour to the whole enterprise. 

But over the past 77 years since 1947 India has shown no desire to "invade" Pakistan. 53 years ago in 1971 India did "liberate" Bengal and helped create Bangladesh but that was it. Today the Indian stock market is bigger than the entire GDP of Pakistan. The Indians are more bent on making money.

So this escalation in fighting between Muslims and Muslims (Pushtuns, Baloch, Punjabis) is a new "front" in Pakistan. I think the Pakistani Army will face some stresses in handling this situation because the Army does have representation from all these communities.

Here is something I found here (you can click on the link) :  https://twitter.com/soldierspeaks/status/1770809873053155509

"Agenda: To address the issue of Pashtun officers illegally selected in the (Pakistani) army due to being Afghan nationals.

It has been decided that Pashtun officers with "Qaum Afghan" written in their documents will be removed from the Pakistani army. According to AG, only Pashtuns who have not identified themselves as "Qaum Afghan" will be eligible for selection and recruitment. In reality, all Pashtuns identify as "Qaum Afghan" in their inheritance documents.

The decision to penalize Pashtun officers in the Pakistani army is being viewed as an excuse to remove a significant number of Pashtun officers."

New enemies are being created - on all sides.  

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.