Pushing ISIS militants into Afghanistan in the manner of Kashmir

Violence flared up between Afghanistan armed forces and Pakistan military at Durand line at Sirkanay district in Afghanistan on January 20. The said incident, which erupted in the morning in which heavy artillery was used, continued till Saturday evening.

Although confrontations between the two forces have become routine, particularly following the Taliban government’s efforts to counter what it calls Pakistan’s army policy of gradually encroaching on border areas along the Durand Line in Afghanistan, the motive behind this violent action is unprecedented, according to claims from Taliban officials and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) sources.

According to these sources, including those who know people inside the Pakistani military setup, the Pakistan military was trying to push ISIS terrorists into Afghanistan and it was to pursue this objective that its armed forces stirred up the dispute at the border so that the ISIS cadre could enter into Afghanistan while the Afghanistani guards were engaged against their much well equipped neighbours.

If this is true, this will be a copycat action of what Pakistan’s army has been doing on its Eastern borders facing India where using artillery fire was a common ruse to engage Indian troops even as Pakistan army sponsored terrorists would attempt entering into India.
Among those who confirmed this development to the Sunday Guardian is former TTP commander Ehsanullah Ehsan, who called it a ‘Kashmir-style infiltration’ attempt on the Afghan border by the Pakistan army.

“After the said incident, social media accounts linked to the Pakistani army claimed that the skirmish took place after Pakistani forces retaliated to the Afghan forces’ objection to the repair that was being carried out at the border fence. However, according to my information, this happened when ISIS fighters were trying to cross the border from Pakistan and were spotted and confronted by the Afghan border guards. There intruders had the full support of the Pakistani army and were being provided military “cover” by the Pakistan army which was noticed by the Afghan side,” he told the Sunday Guardian.

According to him, the Daesh fighters who crossed the Durand line, passed through the posts of the Pakistani forces but due to the retaliatory attack of the Afghan forces, they escaped back and went to the Pakistani army side.
“ In order to eliminate the ISIS operatives, the Afghan forces targeted the posts of the Pakistani forces with heavy weapons, in response to which the Pakistan side also used artillery,” he said.

According to him, it was clear that these fresh tactics of Pakistani forces to infiltrate ISIS fighters into Afghanistan by using Pakistani army forces posts shows that the Pakistani army has “started implementing a policy of infiltration into Kashmir” in order to destabilize Afghanistan.

This chain of events was also confirmed by a senior TTP commander and an official source within the Taliban military. As per the TTP commander, the coordination between the ISIS cadre and the members of the Pakistan army has increased in recent times, the evidence of which has also been collected by the Afghanistan intelligence agency, General Directorate of Intelligence.

Afghanistan has been witnessing an increase in terror attack that are being undertaken by the ISIS cadre, allegedly at the behest of Pakistan army officers in order to, apart from other geo-political reasons, to put pressure on the Taliban leadership to stop giving support to the TTP which communication originating from General Headquarters, Rawalpindi claims works like a mercenary force.