Attack on Asadullah Khalid, the spy chief of Afghanistan, was not the first of its kind. Before this, one of the most active and influential leaders of Afghanistan, Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani also became the victim of such an attack. It has been reported that a person who presented himself as the representative of Taliban for peace talks with Afghan government, carried out this attack. This deadly attack left the spy chief badly injured and he is at present getting treated in a medical facility in Kabul. Although it has been reported that his condition is stable and soon he would return to his job but for ensuring his better treatment, he is going to be sent abroad.
Initial investigations revealed that the perpetrator of this heinous attack was sent from Pakistan and thus a great uproar started against Pakistan in our national media. President Karzai, though not mentioning any specific country or organization, indirectly accused Pakistan for being involved in this attack and thus protested against it. The following day, Pakistan’s foreign ministry came up with a statement that Pakistan was not involved in it and such blames and accusations should be avoided for the sake of stable relations between the neighboring nations.
This game of accusations, blames and rejections is not new. Since the inception of democratic government in Afghanistan, the relations between the two countries fluctuated with such practices. Many a times, our intelligence agencies found out that Pakistan was directly or indirectly involved behind a number of terrorist attacks. In this regard, Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI has been repeatedly blamed of carrying out dangerous plots and conspiracies, threatening the existence and stability of country.
On many other occasions, terrorists or Taliban were caught and shown on the media who admitted in front of media that they were trained by Pakistani officials and sent to Afghan soil for committing terror attacks. There were also caught terrorists with Pakistani documents and with plans and maps for planned terrorism in the country.
Similarly, this issue was intensely repeated in the media that Taliban have gathered in Quetta city of Pakistan where they have established their roots and a setup of government called ‘Quetta Shura’ or ‘Quetta Council’ where all the operations of Taliban were planned and they were trained and sent to Afghanistan to be functional for bringing the Taliban back into power in the country. It was blamed that Pakistan government supported both financially and morally this terrorist establishment and they were responsible for all their activities.
In the same way, many people keep accusing that many terrorist camps are present in Pakistan where Taliban and other terrorist groups train and send the terrorists for terror activities in Afghanistan.
But this series of blames and accusations is not one-sided. On the other hand, Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of hosting the training camps where the separatists of Baluchistan are trained. From these places, members of Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) carry out attacks on the police and security personnel of Pakistani government in different parts of the Baluchistan province of Pakistan. Recent years also witnessed increased suicide bombings and terrorism in different parts of Pakistan and from this side as well, Pakistani agencies accused Afghan terrorists being involved in it.
Whenever there was an attack in either Afghanistan or Pakistan, there started the series of accusations between the two countries. Such a war of words always resulted in the decline of mutual understanding between the two neighboring countries and relations between the two countries got plummeted.
But then happens another miraculous work in between. Whenever the relations between the two countries get worse, a politician visits the other country and such talks always end with a press conference in which both the countries agree that good relations between the two countries is very essential for the region and both the countries and thus both the countries should work together in this regard. Many a times, President Karzai visited Pakistan where he was warmly received and the talks between the leaders of two countries resulted in the restoration of relations.
Similarly, there were continuous visits of Kabul by President Asif Ali Zardari, their prime ministers and other senior ministers like Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, that always resulted in the restoration of good relations between the countries. On a number of occasions, a leader of America paid a visit to normalize the relations between the countries.
In all these visits and peace talks, old accusations and blames were forgotten and the need of working with a new spirit and energy was emphasized.
On several occasions, the heads of both the countries announced the establishment of a commission that would conduct investigation and see if these blames have any validity or not. But none of these commissions came up with any clear result and no practical action was carried out based on the recommendations of these investigations.
A person who is observing this game of blames and accusations gets puzzled. He doesn’t understand why this game is being played and why both the countries are constantly trying to fool their masses and what are the objectives that are aimed to be achieved by this shuttle-cock game.
Out of all these, who is suffering the most? A general observation makes clear that leaders of both the countries spend millions of dollars annually for the peace talks and the visits of their leaders and delegations. At present, an eighteen-member delegation of Afghanistan’s upper house (Masharanu Jirga) is visiting Pakistan where they met the Premiere of the country and are planned to meet with all the important Pakistani leaders. Once again, same kinds of talks are carried out and same kinds of statements have been issued to the press. Almost a decade old problems have been discussed and often repeated pledges have been made from both the sides.
The visit of delegation of High Peace Council was very much discussed in the media of both the countries and has been termed as a historic event but till now, nothing has happened that could be out of the usual.
Afghanistan also hosted the Loya Jirga or traditional system of reconciliation and negotiations for a couple of times and thousands of leaders and tribal chiefs participated in it from both the countries but there was not present any clear success from these.
In the end, it comes out that all these are the part of a greater game which is being played to keep the people in dark. It is necessary that both the countries should come up with practical steps to curb the terrorism. It is also necessary that both the countries should be very careful in making accusations against each other.
Instead of making baseless blames, both the countries should come up with clear proofs against each other and then demand for a proper follow-up so that the problem of terrorism should be solved permanently. It would save millions of dollars that can be spent on the welfare of people because common people of both the countries is suffering a lot and they are in dire need of any kind of rehabilitation and progress. It would also save the time of leaders and they will be able to divert their attention on other necessary issues instead of conducting meetings and issuing often repeated statements.