Kabul: ‘unable’ & ‘unwilling’

Pakistan asserts its right to conduct airstrikes within Afghanistan to dismantle terrorist groups responsible for numerous attacks on its soil. The nation highlights a surge in terrorist incidents, citing hundreds over the past year, with figures reaching 80 in February, 146 in March, and 85 in April. This situation, Pakistan argues, leaves it with no alternative but to use force to neutralize these groups and curb cross-border threats.

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Every strike is intended to prevent another attack.

The article distinguishes Pakistan's actions from India's, asserting that legally, the two scenarios are fundamentally different. It emphasizes that India's past strikes on Pakistani territory do not meet the criteria for unilateral self-defense under international law. Pakistan's defense minister suggests that Kabul is misleading Pakistan, feigning an inability to control terrorists while potentially harboring a secret arrangement with India that facilitates operations against Pakistan through proxy groups.

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The state is, in fact, left with no choice than the resort to force in order to incapacitate terrorist groups and curtail the mischief coming from across the Afghan border.

Pakistan maintains its strikes are targeted at military objectives, including weapons depots and training camps, utilizing intelligence from ground sources and satellite imagery. While acknowledging that collateral damage to civilians is an unfortunate consequence of aerial operations, the primary objective is not to attack Afghanistan as a state. Kabul has repeatedly stated it has not authorized any group to carry out terrorist attacks in Pakistan, yet it has demonstrably failed to prevent them, indicating an inability to exercise effective control over these groups.

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Whereas the view of Pakistan’s defence minister is that Kabul is deceiving Pakistan by pretending that it is unable to control the terrorists, and instead, is actually unwilling, because of Afghanistan’s alleged secret deal with India, which allows the latter to directly conduct operations against Pakistan through terrorist groups or their proxies.