Retributive response

2026-02-22 - 22:13

Pakistan’s intelligence-based strikes along the Afghan border were an act of compulsion. After a string of heinous suicide bombings including the attack on an imambargah in Islamabad and incidents in Bajaur and Bannu the state had a constitutional and moral obligation to respond. No sovereign nation can allow its citizens to be slaughtered while remaining passive in the face of clear, cross-border orchestration. The government has stated that there is conclusive evidence linking these atrocities to Afghanistan-based leadership of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its affiliates,and Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP). When terrorist networks operate with impunity from across the border, and repeated diplomatic démarches fail to yield meaningful action, the responsibility to act shifts squarely to the aggrieved state. In this context, Pakistan’s calibrated and precise strikes were a retributive response limited, intelligence-driven, and aimed solely at dismantling terrorist infrastructure. Our authorities have repeatedly urged the Taliban regime in Afghanistan to prevent their soil from being used for attacks. These calls have gone unheeded. By failing to curb and effectively tolerating the presence of anti-Pakistan terrorist outfits, the Taliban regime has left Islamabad with no viable alternative. The responsibility for escalation lies not with the victim of terrorism but with those who enable its perpetrators.It is also an open secret that such groups benefit from external sponsorship, including funding streams traced to India, Pakistan’s arch adversary. The convergence of hostile intelligence designs and militant sanctuaries poses a direct threat to regional stability. No state worthy of its name would abdicate its duty under such circumstances.We have consistently argued in these columns that acting decisively against terror groups rather than providing them space or sympathy is fundamentally in the interest of the Afghan people. Pakistan has always raised the humanitarian plight of ordinary Afghans at international forums and supported engagement rather than isolation. Yet the Afghan populace continues to suffer under policies that deepen diplomatic estrangement and economic hardship.The path forward is clear. The commitments under the Doha Agreement must be honoured in letter and in spirit. Afghan soil must not be used against any other country. Recognition, investment and stability will follow only when Kabul demonstrates credible action against terrorist outfits.The choice now rests with the Afghan authorities. They can persist in policies that mire their nation in unrest, or they can break decisively with militancy and chart a course toward peace and regional integration.