I will support
@A-Team here with few exceptions. Afghanistan is our neighbour and will remain so forever. Sowing seeds of hatred will only lead to the delay of inevitable; our peaceful future together. We in Pakistan must distinguish between who are at fault and who are helpless to change anything. A common Afghan refugee or citizen is poor, helpless and just like a normal human being deserves to live in peace with dignity. Situation around him is hopeless and desperate. It is easy to manipulate a desperate mind. Our efforts should be to reduce the misery of a common Afghan through legal trade which will help him improve his quality of life, educate his children and distinguish right from wrong. Afghanistan and Pakistan have much to offer each other despite what you would normally believe. For example Afghanistan has fresh and dry fruits, wool, hides, carpets, minerals, timber and tourism (trust me Afghanistan is blessed with natural beauty). Many of you might not believe but Afghanistan can become a really good investment destination for our industrialists. If they can go set up factories in Bangladesh why not in Afghanistan at some point in future? Our contribution in uplifting Afghan economy will come to benefit us. It will be foolish of us to loose sight of long term prospects because of short term differences.
Point to remember is our destinies are intertwined. Let's not loose sight of what can we achieve together.
@A-Team
Your people need to understand a few points. Foreign powers in your country are no friends of yours. They have their own agenda which may not be in best interest of Afghanistan. India is not there because it loves you. She is there to spread instability in Pakistan and gain access to central Asia which otherwise is blocked by China and Pakistan. It is in India's interest to keep Afghanistan in turmoil. She will do everything to keep you in state of civil war which allows her to play filthy games. Afghanistan people need to remember Pakistan hosted and helped Afghan populace when Soviet backed regime was killing and throwing them in prisons. Taliban regime was brought down with the help of Pakistan. After doing this, we can rightly expect that Afghanistan would not let India use its terrain to spread terrorism and separtism in Pakistan. Many of Afghan officials who spew venom on Pakistan were refugees in Pakistan. Our anger is justified and should be understandable. Despite the ill-treatment of refugees in some camps in Pakistan, it is still better than jail like camps in Iran where Afghans are sent to die in Syria.
I do not favour distinguishing between good or bad Talibans. Afghan Taliban are a menace and do not belong to this century. I support their full neutralisation wherever they may be. This however is not that straight forward. They will stay around because of following reasons. Remove these reasons and they can be eliminated.
1) Afghan forces have not shown any ability to defeat them.
2) They enjoy considerable support in certain segments of Afghans especially rural Pashtuns. That can not be ignored.
3) Afghan government officials have not been able to come up to people aspirations. Taliban will remain an alternate hence and will continue to draw some support.
4) Pakistan will never ignore its security. With Afghan army, intelligence, government officials, media and a large section of society completely singing Indian language, it is a legitimate concern that Pakistan's security will come under threat with no well wishers in Afghanistan. You can not possibly expect Pakistan to watch and do nothing.
5) It is my assessment that Afghan Taliban are fully capable of and are operating from inside Afghanistan. The one's inside Pakistan are only source of any reasonable link for talks or leverage. Their arrest will not affect insurgency. It will only make it uncontrollable.
6) Absence of representation of Pashtun ethnicity in Afghan governance has inevitable fall out on Pakistan side where Pashtuns live with their ties to Afghan side. Pakistan has legitimate concern as it fears another wave of Afghan refugees should Northern Alliance gains absolute power.
There is work to be done on both sides. While it is easy to hurl insults, threats and accusations at each other, we are not making things any better. India, US or any other foreign power does not care how many Afghans are killed if it serves their purpose. In the end, it is Pakistan and Afghanistan which will have to take charge of their affairs and talk bilaterally. At the moment we are compromising our future for the sake of foreigners. It is us who are suffering not them.
