Pakistan urges Afghanistan to not let India use its land against Pakistan

Islamabad : Pakistan has urged Afghanistan not to permit India use its land against Pakistan. The spokesperson of Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, Nafis Zakaria made this plea against the backdrop of increasing cooperation between India and Afghanistan.

On the 30th and 31st August, India and the US are holding important talks about India extending military cooperation to Afghanistan. Due to this, it is being seen as the natural reaction from Pakistan, who is worried about the developments.

For the past few months, tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan are mounting. In the bordering areas of both the countries, incidents ranging from army clashes to conflicts between the citizens of both the countries, were noticed. The Afghani citizens had expressed their discontent towards Pakistan, by setting the Pakistani flags on fire. After that, Pakistan tried to isolate Afghanistan by taking the decision of sealing the border. While Pakistan is taking such aggressive decisions, the Taliban, thriving on the support of Pakistan, has intensified its activities against Afghanistan. This has mounted pressure on the Afghani security forces, resulting in shortage of essential weapons and other military equipment.

Under this background, the Afghan leaders and senior officials are seeking more military assistance and weapons from India. India has, so far invested almost 2 billion dollars for the development work in Afghanistan. India has also helped strengthen the capacity of the Afghani army by supplying it with four helicopters a few months ago. But it has come to light that the security forces of Afghanistan need more military assistance. The former President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai had recently asked India to provide still more military assistance for increasing the capacity of its security forces.

On the 30th and 31st August, the Foreign Ministers of India and the US will hold bilateral talks, in which the security of Afghanistan also, will be a major topic for discussion. One day prior to the discussions, the Army Chief of Afghanistan is going to visit India. During this visit, he is going to present a list to India that includes the requirement of the military equipment of the security forces of Afghanistan. All these events have further increased Pakistan’s worries. This is the reason why Afghanistan is receiving such threats as well as requests from Pakistan.

The Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson Nafis Zakaria has appealed to Afghanistan for not allowing India use its land against Pakistan. At the same time, Zakaria has also accused that the anti-Pakistan forces from Afghanistan are being instigated by India. Prior to this also, Pakistan had made similar allegations against India, but could not prove a single allegation. Pakistan has claimed that the military cooperation between India and Afghanistan is being used against Pakistan. There could be a possibility that Pakistan is making such aggressive moves against Afghanistan for this very reason. At the same time, the President of Afghanistan Ashraf Gani had recently stated that the patience of Afghanistan, who has been hit badly due to Pakistan’s policy to aid terrorists, is running out.