With a drone attack in Panjshir, Pakistan has spat in the face of the US and the west. It needs to be penalised

Panjshir valley — the only province untouched by the barbarity of the Taliban and guarded ferociously by the Resistance forces of Acting President Amrullah Saleh and Ahmad Massoud is facing a barrage of Pakistani drones attacks.

According to media reports, after the Taliban could not breach the defences of Panjshir, the Pakistani army stepped in to attack the Resistance forces. Afghanistan’s former Samangan MP Zia Arianjad also confirmed the development to Aamaj News and said that Pakistani drones attacked Panjshir using ‘smart bombs’ on Sunday. In a great setback to the Panjshir Resistance, Ahmad Massoud’s close aid Mohammad Fahim Dashty, a journalist, and resistance leader and another General in the resistance were killed in the attack.

The attacks come at a time when Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed was in Kabul to meet the Taliban leadership.

Ahmad Massoud, the son of legendary anti-Taliban guerrilla leader Ahmad Shah Massoud who has put up a defiant front against the Taliban took to Twitter to inform that it is the Pakistan army and ISI that are strengthening the Taliban, which is incapable of fighting against the resistance on its own.

Massoud tweeted, “The Taliban are not fighting with us but the Pakistani army and ISI are leading them. The Taliban are not strong enough to compete with us but the Pakistan Army is cooperating with them #SanctionPakistan @calxandr”

https://twitter.com/Mohsood123/status/1434706400261902338

Pakistan one-up’s the US again

Pakistan is a major non-NATO ally and, for the entirety of its existence, it has managed to fool the US and the world that it is fighting against terrorism. By supporting a terrorist outfit that has toppled the democratic government set up by the US — Pakistan has spat in its face. By colluding with the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and several other terror outfits, against whom the US spent close to two decades fighting, Pakistan has once again shown that it is a master player in the region that has managed to one-up the US.  

De-recognise and sanction Pakistan

Now, Pakistan is coming after the last bastion of civilian government and if it is destroyed, Afghanistan will completely land in the hands of the Taliban. The only way to stop it from happening is by de-recognising the Taliban as a non-NATO ally and block the funding route which it usurps in the name of combating terrorism and freeze its assets. In short, the terrorist state of Pakistan needs to be severely sanctioned.

It’s high time, that the UN shows some spine and divert its attention from woke agendas and put international sanctions on Pakistan under chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, which provides for all kinds of retributions, including militaristic as well as non-military sanctions like Economic, rail, sea, air, telephone, and other means of communication.

Afghan people have already demanded it

As reported by TFI previously, after the Taliban captured the capital city of Kabul, the Afghans had started raising their voices to tell the world that Pakistan should pay the price for their current situation. #SanctionPakistan was among the top trending hashtags on Twitter as Afghans took to the microblogging platform demanding sanctions against Islamabad for its support to the Taliban. Several influential Afghans including cricketer Rashid Khan took to Twitter to share their side of the story and ask for help.

Read More: Afghanistan is falling apart and Afghans are making sure that Pakistan pays for it

A delusional Pakistan

Reported extensively by TFI, Pakistan believes that by winning Afghanistan through the Taliban, it can control the region by exporting terrorists willy nilly. It falsely believes the notion that Central Asia will be unlocked for it while on the West, it will be able to come harder on India on the Kashmir issue.

Despite having a monster in its backyard, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), fighting for the removal of the Pakistan government and has the covert backing of the Afghan Taliban – Islamabad is looking the other way. On Sunday, TTP carried out a suicide attack in Pakistan’s Quetta, killing at least three Pakistani paramilitary soldiers and injuring 20 people.

To protect the Afghans and their freedom, the world leaders and in specific US President Joe Biden, who created the mess in the first place need to step up and protect Panjshir. Biden has already failed once during the withdrawal of American troops, and if he fails to protect Panjshir, it will be a major blemish on his Presidential career which is only in its first year.