Experts at a roundtable discussion on Thursday called for renewed engagement between Pakistan and Afghanistan, saying India was exploiting tensions between the two countries to advance its strategic interests against Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD, Oct 15 (APP): Experts at a roundtable discussion on Thursday called for renewed engagement between Pakistan and Afghanistan, saying India was exploiting tensions between the two countries to advance its strategic interests against Pakistan.
The roundtable, titled “India as a Factor in Deteriorating Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations,” was organised by the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS), Islamabad, said a press release.
Former Pakistan ambassador to the United States Ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi urged Islamabad to revive friendly relations with Afghanistan, citing longstanding historical and cultural ties and Pakistan’s hosting of Afghan refugees for more than four decades.
He called on the government to distinguish between policies directed at Afghanistan’s Taliban administration and those affecting the Afghan people. He acknowledged the rationale behind kinetic operations inside Afghanistan. He agreed that India was taking advantage of the strained bilateral relations.
Former foreign secretary and Chairman of the Sanober Institute Ambassador Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said India had failed to achieve its objectives of defeating Pakistan militarily or isolating it diplomatically and had consequently resorted to waging a proxy war against Pakistan through Afghanistan.
He noted that the relevant committees of the UN Security Council had documented the presence of 20 terrorist groups on Afghan soil. He added that although there were reports of al-Qaeda providing training to TTP militants in Afghanistan, it remained challenging for Pakistan to generate international support for combating the global threat of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan. The primary reason, he argued, was the prevailing international political environment, characterized by uncertainty and crisis.
Ambassador Chaudhry called for reviving and reinvigorating people-to-people interactions between Pakistan and Afghanistan and adopting regional and multilateral approaches to addressing the presence of terrorist groups on Afghan soil.
Chairman of the Pakistan Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies (PICSS), Maj. Gen. Muhammad Saad Khattak, said India was treating the deteriorating relations between Pakistan and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan as an opportunity to use Afghan soil against Pakistan.
He added that the Taliban’s reluctance to act against the TTP and BLA as an indication of Indian influence on Kabul’s foreign policy. He urged both Kabul and Islamabad to give diplomacy a fair chance and resolve all outstanding issues, including cross-border terrorism, through mutual consultation and dialogue.
Other participants included former Pakistan ambassador to Afghanistan Ambassador Arif Ayub, former ambassador to Germany Ambassador Saeed Khalid, IRS Research Fellow Dr. Usman W. Chohan and Head of the Afghanistan Programme at IRS Aarish U. Khan.