A 22-year-old army lieutenant Arslan Alam was martyred on Saturday at a newly built security post in the Rajgal Valley in the Khyber Agency. After successful completion of military operation in the area, army expanded its presence to monitor the cleared area. Sindh regiment’s lieutenant was commanding the border post when it came under fire reportedly from inside Afghanistan.
Pakistan had expressed serious reservations time and again over across the border attacks from Afghanistan, but nothing substantial was done by Afghan government to control the non-state actors in the country. The very recent attack in which a young lieutenant was martyred is the latest incident in a series of attacks on Pakistani security forces from across the border.
After successful military operation of Pakistan army in the tribal areas along with Afghan border, many terrorist escaped to the neighboring country. Terrorists after fleeing to Afghanistan took refuge in the terrorist hideouts, mostly located near the border of Pakistan. From where they launch terrorist attacks, in May this year in such attacks three military posts were attacked and five soldiers were killed. It appears to be a pattern all too familiar now as Tehreek-eTaliban Pakistan and other terrorist organizations are operating so freely from Afghanistan.
On the other side, Afghan government often blames Pakistan that militant groups including the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network operate from inside Pakistani territory. Afghan leaders often ask Pakistan to take action against terrorists who allegedly attacking their country using Pakistani soil.
It is unfortunate that major terrorist incidents only end up turning relations between the two countries sour. This is high time for both countries to form united strategies to redress grievances of each other in order to eliminate sanctuaries of terrorists. Because one thing is certain, until these centauries are operating it would be extremely hard to bring peace in the region.
Looking at the issue, it is clear that both the countries are talking about the exact same issue. Then it must not be hard to find solution of this, relatively an old problem now. Enhancing cooperation via intelligence sharing, holding joint military exercises to dismantle militant outfits would be in huge benefit of both.
Pakistan and Afghanistan need to enhance military and intelligence cooperation to defeat terrorists.