...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo...
on Tuesday illustrates the lethal threat militancy continues to pose to the region. Over 40 people were killed in the attack in the province bordering North
Wazoo. While other parts of Afghanistan have experienced equally brutal acts of terrorism, this is probably the biggest incident of its kind in recent years to have taken place so close to the Pakistain border. Though the Afghan Taliban have denied carrying out the attack, the hard boyz are known to distance themselves from operations which inflict heavy civilian casualties, in order to minimise the public backlash. And while Afghanistan has often complained that Pakistain-based hard boyz are causing havoc in that country, Islamabad has also raised the issue of Afghanistan-based fighters carrying out cross-border raids into Pakistain. The latest such incident came on Saturday, when three Pak soldiers were killed in Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central
...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth...; rockets were reportedly fired by Pak hard boyz hiding in the Afghan province of Kunar, and the banned TTP grabbed credit for the raid. These incidents show the extent to which the Pakistain-Afghanistan frontier region, especially those areas where Afghan provinces border our tribal heartland, are affected by violence. It is essential that Islamabad and Kabul coordinate a purposeful anti-militancy strategy. As Pakistain's interior minister told a senior US diplomat on Tuesday, the "safe havens of bully boyz from Afghan territory" must be rooted out; just as Pakistain is belatedly doing in North Waziristan.
The rising Death Eater attacks are a sign of the likely challenges Kabul and Islamabad will face as American and other foreign forces leave Afghanistan by the end of the year. Illustrating the Death Eaters' renewed appetite to go on the offensive, the UN has said civilian casualties were up considerably in Afghanistan during the first half of the year. The best way to deal with the threat is for Islamabad and Kabul to join forces against a common enemy. The policy of using proxies to destabilise each other must be abandoned by both sides. There have been some high-profile meetings between Afghanistan and Pakistain's top security officials over the past few weeks. Such engagements must continue and Afghanistan should deploy additional forces along the border regions to prevent hard boyz fleeing the military operation by the Pakistain Army to find refuge on the other side. Whoever ends up occupying the presidency in Kabul, once the controversy surrounding elections is resolved, must continue to work with Pakistain against militancy.