There is no doubt that the terrorist attacks in Pakistan started after the US military operation in Afghanistan, and it all started after the 9/11 tragedy. On September 11, 2001 – the day that changed the history of the world – terrorists targeted the World Trade Center in the US and turned the sign of America’s progress into a pile of ashes.
On 9/11, suicide attackers seized US passenger jets and crashed them into two New York skyscrapers, killing almost 3,000 people. The United States blamed al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden for the attacks and demanded the extradition of bin Laden from Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban leadership.
However, when the Taliban explicitly rejected the US president’s demand, then-US President George W. Bush led an invasion of Afghanistan – supported by an international coalition – to eradicate al-Qaeda and hunt down Bin Laden. The sound of the 9/11 incident can still be heard today because this incident was not allowed to be forgotten. The attack was followed by the echo of explosion for twenty years.
The severe consequences of the US invading Afghanistan and Iraq were it halted the reconstruction of Afghanistan and in the next few years, dangerous organizations like ISIS were born which surpassed Al Qaeda and thus the scope of this war continued to spread in the name of terrorism.
Indeed, the US had every right to punish those responsible for the 9/11 attacks, as part of the doctrine of self-defence. However, the two-decade occupation of Afghanistan that has just ended in a Taliban victory killed hundreds of innocent citizens. Their drone attacks killed innocent people while also targeted the Muslim world including Europe, Britain and other western countries.
The bodies of innocent children kept falling in mosques, churches, airports, imambargahs, and schools. This was the time when the process of economic development of Afghanistan came to a complete halt. After the rise of extremism and violence, it escalated and spread to Pakistan.
The United States had said in a statement that Saudi Arabia was not directly involved in the attacks on the United States, but a conspiracy by a handful of non-state actors from the kingdom. In a fit of rage, the United States landed on the rocky cliffs of Afghanistan, but there it found nothing but to slip through the rocks, and today, twenty years later, it is doomed to defeat.
The withdrawal of the US and its ally NATO with “honor and dignity” at the end of August this year was, in fact, an embarrassment that intellectuals around the world wrote in their own way. Even though the United States left Afghanistan, the economic situation there was drowned out.
Let us look at the situation in Pakistan during the period. After the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan emerged as the most important ally of the United States in the world against terrorism. The manner in which Pakistan then started sacrificing human lives in terrorism may not be remembered for a moment.
With so many human lives were sacrificed, Pakistan was accused of sometimes supporting the Taliban and sometimes of the Coalition Support Fund. Pakistan’s involvement in the US war on terror provided Islamabad with a small amount of economic aid, but it did not outweigh the financial and human losses.
Pakistan provided full support to the United States in 2001, but Pakistan has from time to time received ridicule and complaints from the United States. But in fact, Pakistan’s own national interest required it to do something cautious while doing so and not compromise on its integrity and sovereignty.
But it did not happen because of which we had to lose human lives in this war. About eighty thousand people were killed and not only this, financially, Pakistan’s economy was severely affected. The loss is the economic blow from which Pakistan has not been able to recover yet.
But thank God that Pakistan’s army, paramilitary forces and other security agencies, including the police, with great courage and bravery controlled this terrorism in Pakistan. Because at one time it was common for one or two bombings and suicide attacks a week, but our army went to the tribal and adjoining areas to selectively take action against terrorists and eliminate this threat.
Although the incidence of terrorism still occurs, the incidence is much lower than in the past. This article simply describes how unstable Afghanistan is creating problems for its neighbors and why is peace in Afghanistan necessary? However, in order to maintain peace in Afghanistan, the new government is facing serious economic difficulties.
And in order to improve Afghanistan’s economic affairs, it desperately needs the full cooperation of other countries. Thus, if the world does not help Afghanistan and the economic situation there deteriorates, the monster of terrorism is feared to re-emerge.
