Former Canadian envoy draws attention to 'Pak's proxy war' in Afghanistan
May 22, 2021
Ottawa [Canada], May 23 : Following the recent truce between Israel and Palestine, former Ambassador and Canadian Cabinet Minister Chris Alexander is asking the world to turn its eyes on Pakistan's proxy war in Afghanistan.
Drawing parallels with the middle-east conflict that ended earlier this week, Alexander lamented on his Twitter, how little attention is given to civilians who get killed in Afghanistan.
"If thousands of civilians killed by bombs and assassination from Nangarhar to Herat got just a fraction of the attention given to Gaza's hundreds of victims, Pakistan's proxy war in Afghanistan would have ended long ago," Alexander tweeted on May 21.
In an earlier tweet, the former envoy had asked when will Pakistan end its proxy war in Afghanistan. "Israel is ending military operations in Gaza: when will Pakistan's military end its proxy war in Afghanistan".
Amid the final drawdown of US troops from Afghanistan, last week after President Ashraf Ghani has emphasised the need for a decision on peace and for Europe's much-needed role to "get Pakistan on board" on the ongoing peace talks with Taliban.
In March, Alexander had revealed the integral role of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) as the principal and underlying cause of persistent war in Afghanistan. He detailed the proxy war strategies of Pakistan in an MLI paper titled "Ending Pakistan's Proxy Way in Afghanistan."
Alexander argued that, instead of working to achieve stability under democratic institutions chosen by Afghans, Pakistan's post-9/11 military leaders have "sheltered Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda while working to scale up military and terrorist campaigns prosecuted by the Taliban's Quetta Shura, the Haqqani Network, and other groups."
He also revealed that the Taliban and their allies have received unstinting support from Pakistan's military for decades. This state terror as statecraft has systematically resulted in the Taliban's capacity to continue engaging in terrorist activities.
Afghanistan has seen a spike in the incidents of violence in recent weeks, leading to casualties of Afghan security forces and civilians. US withdrawal from Afghanistan is underway and set to complete by September 11.
