In the summer turmoil of June, as Israeli warplanes battered Iran’s nuclear sites, Pakistan did something unexpected for the international community. While other nations hedged or stayed quiet, Islamabad’s voice rang loud in condemning what it called unprovoked aggression, leading to public praise by Iran’s military chief.
Not long after, Pakistan found itself engulfed by flames on its western frontier. As if to punctuate the bloody trail of suicide blasts and terror attacks, the Taliban used the cover of night this week to launch a massive, coordinated assault on Pakistan’s border posts. Fifty-three separate locations across 15 sectors came under attack in a single night. No qualms about the courage of our armed forces, who are fighting back hard, striking Kabul and Kandahar, but the Pakistani leadership has pointed the finger at more than just the ragtag whims of local guerrillas.
In a rare direct accusation, the Foreign Office accused the Afghan Taliban of acting with the active support and backing of external powers, naming India in particular. The implication was thinly veiled that New Delhi, and by extension its close partner Israel, had a hand in stoking the Afghan regime’s adventurism. After all, who else would gain by trapping Pakistan in a border war at exactly the moment when Israel feared Islamabad might come to Iran’s aid?
India’s tight embrace of Israel is hardly a secret. Just this week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touted a new alliance with India, whose prime minister, as if on cue, landed in Tel Aviv to cement defence cooperation. To further put the point across, the Afghan Taliban regime has now shown itself alarmingly receptive to New Delhi’s overtures. When Pakistan struck terrorist camps on Afghan soil last week, India rushed to condemn Pakistan and defend the Taliban’s sovereignty.
This convergence of interests is not lost on Pakistani policymakers, who see an Indo-Israeli nexus using the Taliban as a pawn to destabilise Pakistan and isolate Iran. If Israel wanted Pakistan neutralised during its campaign against Iran, who better to lean on than India?
Pakistan is no stranger to being in the crosshairs of great games. This is a nation that has sacrificed immensely in the fight against terrorism, enduring over four million Afghan refugees on its soil and thousands of casualties from terrorism over the decades. Few episodes illustrate the human cost better than the Peshawar school massacre of 2014, when Taliban gunmen slaughtered 134 children. The memory of tiny coffins draped in green and white still haunts Pakistan’s collective conscience. That is why today, in the face of this new assault, Pakistan’s resolve is hardened.
Despite facing an enemy it once considered an ally and confronting a geopolitical alliance that pits some of the world’s most powerful states against it, there appears to be a steely clarity in Islamabad’s tone. Pakistan is determined to protect its interests come what may. It will support Iran against aggression, defend its own borders, and refuse to be a pawn in others’ strategic games. *