Several hideouts of terrorists were destroyed by army and air force in the Rajgal Valley of Khyber Agency. At least 13 terrorists were killed in the Operation Khyber-4, which is part of Operation Raddul Fasaad. The war in Afghanistan has been through many phases and fought on many fronts. Who fought whom that too has been its lingering feature. In its latest phase, the Daesh militancy is raising its head in the Rajgal Valley where large swathes of land were cleansed of terrorists by army and air force. While the Trump administration has yet to firm up its policy and the Afghan government forces and Afghan Taliban are contending with Daesh militancy in their own peculiar ways Pakistan too has launched the Operation Khyber-4 to insulate its border against its infiltration. The densely-wooded valleys of Rajgal in Tirah and Shawal in North Waziristan are the two places that abut on militancy-infested Afghan provinces, and have many connecting passes. If the adjoining Afghan territories are now under increasing control of Daesh militants the valleys of Rajgal and Shawal on the Pakistan's side remain sanctuaries of their counterparts, particularly the Lashkar-i-Islam and Jamaatul Ahrar. During the last military operations in these valleys considerable progress was made, but given the passes that link them with areas which are beyond the writ of Kabul the resurgence of Daesh militancy in there is the threat that has obliged the military high command to launch a division-sized land-and-air operation. Briefing media, the military spokesman Major-General Asif Ghafoor had said there is evidence of "expanding footprint of Daesh" - a threat likely to acquire greater urgency now as the Mosul-based 'caliphate' has crumbled freeing its defenders to return home and fight for their mission. According to the ISPR chief, this year's three murderous attacks in Parachinar tend to foretell "what could happen if the area is left unattended." Since there is a section of bureaucracy in Kabul with ever ready mindset to shift blame of its consistent inability to effectively counter insurgency in its country to Pakistan the Afghan government has been taken into confidence about the Operation Khyber-4. The operation is also expected to help the Trump administration rectify its focus by shifting it from the so-called Haqqani Network to the Daesh - may be at the end of the day it is this very network which takes care of the Daesh militancy in Afghanistan in an effective and meaningful manner.
If Daesh is an emerging threat on the western border, on the eastern border India is literally calling for a wider armed conflict. On the very day the Khyber-4 was launched, the Indian forces not only committed a number of violations of the cease-fire in Kashmir, there was also this shelling on an army vehicle in the Neelum valley resulting in the martyrdom of four soldiers. How ironic it is that the country needs absolute national unity of thought and action to confront a host of external threats, the political elite appears to be hardly concerned with situation on borders. It is perhaps of the view that whatever happens on borders is none of its worry. This is not acceptable.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017
