Afghanistan-Pakistan bilateral ties deteriorates in 2022

ISLAMABAD: The ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan witnessed a new low after a top Pakistani diplomat, Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani was attacked outside his mission in Kabul recently. This year, 2022 has been a disastrous year for Pakistan which facilitated the Taliban's return in August 2021 and now Islamabad is tasting its own medicine, Voice of Vienna reported.

After the Taliban took over the Afghan land in 2021, the very same year witnessed a border clash with neighbouring Pakistan, and this year ended with an attack on the Kabul embassy, bringing the bilateral relations to a stooping low and Kabul virtually washing its hands of the marauding Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) that uses Afghan territory for its operations and expansion in Pakistan. An "assassination attempt" targeted Pakistan's top diplomat in Afghanistan, Pakistan's prime minister said, as tensions between the neighbouring countries simmer. The head of mission, Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani, was the target of an attack on its embassy compound, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said on Friday. Al Jazeera reported citing an Embassy official that the attacker "came behind the cover of houses and started firing" in the Embassy compound.

The incident occurred after the Pakistani government urged the Taliban to cease terrorist attacks occurring from their territory. One year after the Taliban's takeover of Kabul, border clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan have increased manifold with no thaw in sight anytime soon, reported Voice of Vienna.

Nizamani travelled to Kabul to assume the position at one of the few embassies that had continued to function since the Taliban seized power in August 2021. The ideological ties the Afghan Taliban have with foreign militant groups like the TTP and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) are a significant factor in the resurrection of terrorist networks, according to Pakistani expert Zahid Hussain's article in Dawn newspaper, a Pakistani publication.

According to Pakistani security researcher Mohammed Amir Rana, the TTP cadres have given the ISKP the necessary muscle and are growing its support base throughout Pakistan. It continues to be relentless and set demands that Islamabad cannot afford to meet, with the help of covert Kabul, Voice of Vienna reported. Pakistan is exerting pressure on Kabul to attribute the latest attack on its Kabul embassy, in which its Charge d'affaires narrowly escaped, to the ISKP.

The IS's South Asia chapter was founded by the TTP's Hafeez Saeed, and there have been "defections" from the TTP to the ISKP, as pointed out by analysts Rana and Zahid Hussain as well as others, as they write for an article in Dawn. Afghanistan has been used as a hinterland by several political governments and the military to gain financial and political clout. (ANI)

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