Proxy Versus Proxy: Pakistan's Risky Move in Afghanistan
Pakistan's relationship with the Afghan Taliban, once considered a cornerstone of its regional policy, is now under strain. A report says Pakistan is again relying on an old method by allegedly recruiting and arming Afghan groups to confront militant factions that threaten Islamabad. The same report cautions that this approach could eventually backfire.
Former US special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad has voiced concern about the developments. Citing reports that the Pakistani army has started providing weapons to Afghans to fight terrorist groups opposed to Islamabad, he warned that ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan were likely to get worse.
Pakistan's Ministry of Information has rejected the allegations, calling them baseless and misleading. Analysts nonetheless view the alleged step as consistent with the long-standing strategic outlook of Pakistan's security establishment.
The report explains that for nearly four decades, Islamabad treated the Afghan Taliban as a strategic asset. The goal was to stop India from expanding its influence in Afghanistan and to ensure that Kabul's government remained favourable to Pakistan. Those ties have now frayed. A low-intensity conflict over the TTP continues along the border.
Pakistan has argued that the Afghan Taliban shelters TTP members on Afghan soil. Despite repeated demands that Kabul crack down on the group, Islamabad has not obtained the outcomes it sought. The report suggests that Pakistan's frustration over the Taliban's refusal to restrain its ideological allies has led it to revisit its traditional tactic, which the report describes as fighting fire with fire, or using proxies against proxies.
The report nevertheless views this as a dangerous gamble. Pakistan's history shows that using militant organisations to pursue its interests abroad has repeatedly boomeranged. Groups once armed and backed to fight in other countries eventually turned their guns on Pakistan.
Arming new Afghan factions to target the TTP may lead to the rise of uncontrolled local militias, the report says. This could increase violence in a border area that is already unstable. It also cites a recent exchange of heavy artillery between Pakistani troops and Afghan Taliban forces in Kurram district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Pakistani officials claimed that Taliban border posts were destroyed in that fighting.
According to the report, the groups Pakistan once supported to secure its western frontier have become some of its greatest security challenges. If the reports about arming new Afghan groups are confirmed, it would represent a risky move by a nuclear-armed country. The report warns that in trying to deal with dangers created in the past, Pakistan could be preparing new adversaries for the future.