A highly ambitious and controversial strategy, allegedly spearheaded by Pakistan’s Army Chief Asim Munir, is reportedly aimed at influencing global powers like the US and China to take decisive action against the Taliban. This alleged covert operation involves leveraging recent security incidents to craft a narrative that paints Afghanistan under Taliban rule as a critical international terror threat. The ultimate goal is to have these superpowers neutralize the Taliban, a task Pakistan’s military is reportedly unable to accomplish alone.
Critics highlight the stark hypocrisy inherent in this alleged strategy. Pakistan, historically implicated in harboring and supporting extremist elements, is now reportedly attempting to cast Afghanistan as the primary source of global terrorism. This narrative pivot is viewed as a calculated effort to garner international support and deflect from its own complex past concerning terrorism, while simultaneously pushing for an external resolution to its issues with the Taliban.
The recent attack on US National Guard soldiers by an Afghan national and the drone strike that killed Chinese nationals in Tajikistan, with suspected Afghan links, are reportedly being used by Pakistan as crucial evidence. The narrative being disseminated is that these incidents underscore a severe and growing threat emanating from Afghanistan, thus urging the US and China to intervene militarily.
In a direct challenge, the Taliban has responded by accusing Pakistan’s ISI of engineering these events to frame them. They suggest that Pakistan’s actions are motivated by a desire to sabotage Afghanistan’s improving relationships with India and the wider international community. This counter-narrative frames Pakistan’s alleged plan as a desperate gambit to employ propaganda and potentially false flag operations to manipulate international actors for its own strategic gains in the region.