On the night of November 26, a Chinese company’s camp near the Afghan border was targeted in a terrorist attack, as a result of which 3 Chinese nationals were killed. It should be noted that Pakistan is gradually becoming a target of terrorism from Afghan soil.
Tajik authorities say that this attack was carried out by terrorist groups from Afghan soil. Tajikistan strongly protested against terrorism from Afghanistan and demanded that the interim government of Afghanistan take practical steps to maintain peace at the border and stop terrorism.
Prior to this, Afghanistan had targeted Pakistan, to which the Pakistan Army gave a full response, and long negotiations were also held between the two countries for the establishment of peace, which proved fruitless. However, the attack on Tajikistan indicates that the interim Afghan government has adopted a policy under which, along with Pakistan, other countries are also becoming targets.
If Tajikistan is discussed, it is a landlocked country in Central Asia whose borders meet Afghanistan in the south, Uzbekistan in the west, Kyrgyzstan in the north, and China in the east. After independence from the Soviet Union, Tajikistan was severely affected by civil war from 1992 to 1997, after which political stability, foreign aid, and the country’s two major natural resources—cotton and aluminum—played an important role in improving the country’s economy. Diplomatic relations between Afghanistan and Tajikistan were established in 1992, and during different periods the refugees of both countries crossed the border and sought refuge in each other’s land. For example, during the 1992 civil war, 80,000 Tajik refugees moved to Afghanistan, and during the Afghan war, thousands of Afghan citizens took refuge in Tajikistan along with Pakistan, which can be considered a mutual point in the relations between Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Tajikistan.
The length of the border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan is approximately 1,300 kilometers, which is mostly mountainous and difficult terrain, considered a major route for drug smuggling that travels from Afghanistan to Russia and then reaches Europe. Speaking of trade relations, Afghanistan and Tajikistan have signed several agreements in the energy sector.
In September 2007, under an agreement worth 500 million US dollars, a project was also planned to supply electricity from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan, and both countries are eager to export their hydroelectric capacity to South Asia. Despite this, Afghanistan’s attack on Tajikistan with the coordination of the Indian intelligence agency RAW reflects the reality that Afghanistan, by taking confrontation with both Pakistan and Tajikistan, is fueling a major fire in the region, as a result of which not only Pakistan and Tajikistan will become targets of terrorism, but other countries in the region may also be affected, and it is impossible that Afghanistan itself will remain safe from this fire, having already become a destroyed nation after America’s 20-year war, whose children and youth have been handed weapons instead of pens and are looking at neighboring countries with bloodthirsty eyes.
Here, the question may be raised: after Pakistan and Tajikistan, who will be the next target of Afghanistan’s provocations? The borders of Afghanistan meet Pakistan and Tajikistan as well as Iran, China, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, which this country may target through cross-border terrorism, while all these countries have been suffering from the consequences of the Afghan situation for years—sometimes in the form of refugees, sometimes in the form of weapons and drug smuggling, and sometimes through terrorist attacks, which have always been a threat to regional peace and security.
Another question also arises: what could be the reasons behind this provocation by the Afghan government? The internal division of the Taliban, failure to control terrorist groups, and external influences—meaning India’s hypocritical strategy which is promoting the worst terrorism across the region. After the failure of Operation Sandor against Pakistan, the Pakistan Army defended the borders of the homeland with resolve, courage, and bravery, which broke the enemy’s strength. Now this cowardly enemy, instead of appearing openly, is attacking peace and security in the region by using Afghanistan as a gun-rest.
On November 26, a shooting occurred in the US capital Washington, as a result of which a female National Guard officer was killed. Along with 20-year-old Sarah Backstrom, another National Guard member, 24-year-old Andrew Wolf, was also seriously injured in the attack, in which 29-year-old Afghan citizen Rahmanullah opened fire. The attacker had previously worked in Afghanistan for the US intelligence agency CIA. After this incident, US President Donald Trump mentioned Afghanistan and described this country as hell on earth.
According to a report of the US CIA, in 2021, 55 Afghan refugees were on the terrorism watchlist, out of which 46 were removed from the list after FBI investigations on the basis of not being a threat, while 9 are still under surveillance. This incident indicates flaws in the monitoring of Afghan refugees. The report recommended keeping the Taliban bound to their promises of controlling terrorism under the Doha Agreement and stopping their US-funded projects so that the Taliban do not benefit.
There is a need that the interim Taliban government of Afghanistan, instead of becoming a puppet in the hands of a hostile and cowardly enemy like India, should think of a better future for its nation and avoid unprovoked attacks on Tajikistan, Pakistan, and other regional countries, which is equivalent to playing with fire considering the regional strategic importance and geographical situation. If the Afghan government does not act wisely today, this series of provocations may not burn Pakistan or Tajikistan or other neighboring countries—but could burn Afghanistan and its youth to ashes.
The Taliban government of Afghanistan perhaps does not realize that, along with US intelligence reports, reports of the monitoring team of the United Nations also indicate that terrorist groups are gradually increasing in Afghanistan, and the US intelligence pointed out that if terrorist groups in Afghanistan are not controlled, they could become a major threat to the US and other countries of the world. In such a situation, it is not impossible that using multilateral forces, another attack on Afghanistan may begin. In such a case, the Afghan people will again fall victim to oppression, brutality, and poverty—already being among the most impoverished nations in the world—and they will have no choice but to once again leave their homeland and head toward neighboring countries like Pakistan, which may once again bear the burden of refugees, as there is still no indication from the Taliban government of any measures to restrain TTP despite increasing concerns of terrorism.
