Friend or Foe?

It is regrettable that just a day after Pakistan lodged protest over the firing of missiles by the US-led coalition forces into Pakistan’s Tribal Areas, which killed two women and two children, four more missiles were fired into the village of Boraki in Kurram Agency. However, the recent wave of attacks from across the border, prove the fact that the US-led coalition forces no longer regard Pakistan as an ally in the War on Terror. On the other hand, one gets the impression that the US, rather considers Pakistan very well within the zone of the War on Terror. Earlier, though it was kept secret, the coalition forces in Afghanistan, before launching an attack, would normally inform the Pakistani authorities. Despite the protest and condemnation by Islamabad, the recent round of attacks occurred without any prior warning.

The political administration in the agency knew nothing as to who was even the target of the attack. Whether it was Pakistan’s Frontier Corps or the militants, the fact remains that the missiles fell close to a FC checkpost. Luckily, no casualties were reported, as none of the missiles exploded. Apparently, to avert the inevitable criticism, official sources said that they had no idea from where the missiles had been launched. Apart from such missile incidents, the ISAF forces on many occasions in the past crossed over to the Pakistani side ‘mistakenly’ and fired on the suspected militants in which many civilians were reportedly killed. Many people have been forced to flee to other areas because of this.

However, our government needs to make a strong protest. Such incidents would not only jeopardise the Pak-US partnership in the War on Terror, but would also propel matters out of control. Earlier, such attacks were attributed to a lack of coordination, but this time around the Pakistani authorities were ignorant of the offensive. The coalition forces also need to display some responsibility and therefore must understand that such attacks would exacerbate the domestic security problem for Pakistan, which is already facing the fallout of extremism. Also, it is about time some line was drawn in the sand between the Pak-Afghan border and the coalition forces are reminded to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty.