On the backfoot

There is disappointment that the UN Security Council has not intervened to stop the firing on Afghanistan’s eastern border. Pakistani rockets rained on Nangarhar this past week, forcing civilians to abandon their houses.

There is disappointment that the UN Security Council has not intervened to stop the firing on Afghanistan’s eastern border. Pakistani rockets rained on Nangarhar this past week, forcing civilians to abandon their houses.
Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul, who addressed the Security Council, had pleaded, “The attacks from the Pakistan side can damage the political and economic interests of the two countries.” Should he have been more forceful? The Security Council cannot be blamed if the Afghan Parliament and people failed to force the government to protest more strongly. The Pakistan government has been pushing its agenda forward.
In a world where Israel is threatening to retaliate because it feels threatened by Iran, the Afghan President has said there will be no retaliation because Afghanistan will not kill “our people across the border”. Is the Punjabi dominated military across the Durand Line Afghan for Karzai?
We don’t want to complicate the issue any further. When Parliament saw demonstrators armed with pickaxes and sticks march in solidarity with the Kunar people it promptly reined in the protest by promising to raise the issue at the Security Council. However no hard evidence was collected. The Afghan government will try to find evidence by the next session. Meanwhile, even before its leaders had returned from New York, Pakistan was firing rockets into Goshta district, Nangarhar.
The former commander of the Eastern Border Police, General Aminullah Amarkhail, told Killid the first attacks in 2010 were on the Babai Doob military checkpoint. “Pakistan then attacked Gordish post, and martyred 23 Afghan soldiers. I sought revenge. Pakistan was sending soldiers dressed as masked smugglers. They fired 1,600 rockets. I warned that Pakistan has entered Zero Point. ‘Let me defend’, but they (officials in Kabul) did not listen to me, or see what was going on.”
Faridoon Mohmand, representative from Nangarhar, told parliament that tribal leaders gathered together on Sep 30. They had been told to make way for the military operation and to leave their villages. The Pakistan army attacked five areas and displaced 500 families.
The tribal leaders met the Nangarhar governor and submitted details of the attacks, but nothing has happened. Instead there are rumours of the signing of a strategic pact with Pakistan.