High time for Pakistan to rethink its Afghan policy

KABUL: Recently, a high-level Pakistani delegation comprising Defence Minister, DG ISI, and Foreign Secretary visited Kabul and held discussions with the Taliban. While both sides were reticent to discuss the outcomes of the meetings, it is evident that the recent spike in violence constituted the core of the discussions, the Politeia Research Foundation said in a report.

In February, a suicide squad carried out a brazen attack on the Karachi Police Office and killed five people. Earlier, the bombing of a Peshawar mosque, located in a highly secured police headquarters, killed approximately 100 people. There were also frequent clashes between the Taliban fighters and Pakistan border guards. All these developments point to the deteriorating security situation at the Afghan-Pak border, the Politeia Research Foundation reported. The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021 was supposed to be a significant victory for Pakistan. However, since the takeover, Pakistan lost an estimated 637 security personnel and 314 civilians in 543 terrorist attacks primarily carried out by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan