Pakistan panic over Afghanistan's operation along Durand Line

The Afghanistan has said that Pakistan government is in panic and concerned over the military operations to be launched along and on both sides of Durand Line to eliminate various terrorist groups from the region,

The Afghan government statement came after foreign affairs adviser of the Pakistani Prime Minister Sartaj Aziz has accused President Asharf Ghani of supporting the Taliban.

A presidential palace spokesman Najibullah Azad told that such remarks reflect the concerns and panic among the Pakistani officials as a massive operation is expected to be launched along and on both sides of Durand Line which will be monitored by the United States and China to eliminate the terrorist from the region, Khaama Press reported.

Merely a week ago, the Afghan Presidential Palace had said that Afghanistan and Pakistan will conduct joint operations against terrorists and their safe havens along the Durand Line. The development came after US senators paid a visit to Pakistani military officials and assured Afghanistan that Islamabad, in coordination with Kabul, will conduct the joint operations. President Ghani's spokesperson, Azad had said the operation would be conducted under the US supervision. "Both the countries will launch operations in their territory against terrorists and oversee the US operations." Afghanistan's Ministry of Defence (MoD) deputy spokesman Mohammad Radmanish said, "This means that both the countries would launch operations on their territory to destroy enemy nests on either side of the Durand Line."

However Pakistani authorities are worried because the U.S. President Donald Trump is aggressively engaged in formalising the strategy for Afghanistan and there are fears that the new policy on Afghanistan will include building up more pressure on Pakistan to target the safe havens of Afghan militant groups based in Peshawar, Quetta, and other parts of Pakistan or face sanctions.

A recent Pentagon report describes Pakistan as "the most influential external actor" in Afghanistan that there can neither be peace nor stability in Afghanistan, if Islamabad does not support the efforts to do so.

The Afghan government has been insisting that the Haqqani Network is an Afghan insurgent terror outfit based in Pakistan's Waziristan and has carried out many high-profile attacks on U.S. forces, high ranking Afghan officials and foreigners in Afghanistan.

The Haqqani Network has ties with Taliban and Al Qaeda and the U.S. considers it a major threat to Afghanistan's stability.

"Militant groups, including Taliban and Haqqani senior leadership, retained safe havens inside Pakistani territory. Sustained Pakistani efforts to disrupt active Haqqani network threats were not observed during the reporting period (Dec 1, 2016, through May 31, 2017)," says the report.

"The United States continues to be clear with Pakistan about steps it should take to improve the security environment and deny safe havens to terrorist and extremist groups," the report adds.

The report further added "Although Pakistani military operations have disrupted some militant sanctuaries, certain extremist groups-such as the Taliban and the Haqqani Network-were able to relocate and continue to operate in and from Pakistan. The United States continues to convey to Pakistan at all levels the importance of taking action against all terrorist and extremist groups."

-ANI