Critical Triangle continues....

This period also saw the nationalist Daoud, rake up the Pashtunistan issue again and once again the North-West Frontier Province became a hotbed of tribal unrest, but this also extended to significant Pashtun pockets in Baluchistan, as well as to ethnic Baluchis. Dealing with this insurgency consumed significant Pakistani resources, and Bhutto had to call out the army. It was at this time that in retaliation, Pakistan initiated its fateful policy of inciting a mirror insurgency in Afghanistan. In what was to become the pattern for the next 40 years, the Pakistanis countered Afghanistan’s ethnicity-based insurgencies with a religion-based one. Major General Nasirullah Babar, the commander of the Pakistan’s Frontier Scouts, organised and directed this insurgency focussing on radical Islamists like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

Thus far Hekmatyar’s claim to fame had been the throwing of acid on girls in Kabul who had given up the wearing of the traditional Islamic veil.By 1977, Jimmy Carter had assumed the American presidency and relations with Pakistan took a nosedive. Much of this was linked to Pakistan’s nuclear programme and the Carter administration’s hard stance on nuclear non-proliferation.

But there was also a domestic element to this. Bhutto had grown increasingly authoritarian and after massive rigging of the March 1977 elections in Pakistan, widespread demonstrations had erupted across the country. On 21 April, the State Department announced the blockage of US$ 68,000 worth of teargas, as this would be against the administration’s human rights policy. On 3 June the administration officially withdrew the offer of 110 A-7 attack aircraft to Pakistan in line with the administration’s policy of limiting arms transfers to developing countries.

To be continued.....