Afghanistan Peace CampaignThe Indian Express
April 10, 2026
China appears to be standing firmly with its “iron brother” Pakistan, but there are good reasons to believe that all’s not as honky-dory as it seems
As Pakistan had been frequently warning Afghanistan of military action if it didn’t act against Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan [TTP] terrorists (who Islamabad alleges operate from bases inside Afghanistan), the declaration of an “open war” against Afghanistan by Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif in late February shouldn’t have come as a surprise.
It’s inconceivable that Asif could have dared declare war without explicit authorisation from Pakistan’s Field Marshal. So, the question that arises is: Why did Field Marshal Munir decide to wage a war that wouldn’t achieve the terminal objective of forcing Kabul to oust TTP when both have not only common religious ideologies but have also fought shoulder-to-shoulder against the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan?
However, Field Marshal Munir’s woes don’t end here. While launching the military operations against Afghanistan (codenamed Operation Ghazab-lil-Haq, meaning “wrath for the truth/Fury for the sake of justice”), he had pompously declared that this operation would continue unabated until “terrorist safe havens and use of Afghan soil against Pakistan is decisively brought to an end.” However, instead of being pushed on the back foot by Pakistani airstrikes against attacks on its alleged bases, TTP has struck back hard, with both the intensity and frequency of its attacks.
In short, Field Marshal Munir’s plan of arm-twisting Kabul to get TTP evicted from Afghanistan has not only failed but also backfired, further aggravating the existing animosity between Pakistanis and the Afghan people. With the Pakistan army failing to achieve its slated military objectives, the Field Marshal has been forced to eat his words and settle down to negotiate with Kabul under a Beijing-brokered initiative. The contentious Durand Line is unlikely to remain peaceful in the foreseeable future, for which no one else but Rawalpindi is to be blamed.
China appears to be standing firmly with its “iron brother” Pakistan, but there are good reasons to believe that all’s not as honky-dory as it seems. While Islamabad’s cavorting with Washington would definitely be a matter of concern for Beijing, the Pakistan army’s abysmal failure to subdue armed sarmachars (freedom fighters) in Balochistan is adversely affecting its $60 billion investment in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor [CPEC] project and mineral mining activities in the province.
Pakistan’s emergence as the main peace broker between the US and Iran is a significant diplomatic achievement that would have definitely brought cheer to Islamabad. However, controversies and contradictions have emerged even here. The Pakistani Prime Minister’s initial post on X requested Washington to postpone its attack on Iranian infrastructure by allowing a two-week time window “to allow diplomacy to run its course.” It carried the transcription “*Draft-Pakistan’s PM Message on X*”, a clear indication that the text posted was composed and transmitted to Sharif by someone from outside Pakistan.
The fact that the otherwise obdurate US President Trump who showed no signs of reconsidering his announcement of bombing Iran to “the stone ages” and even declaring that “whole [Iranian] civilization will die tonight” accepted the Pakistani prime minister’s request in toto suggests that Sharif may well have used by Washington as a pawn to facilitate Trump’s honourable exit from the mess he himself created. But there’s more.
Secondly, according to media reports, while Sharif had announced that the US and Tehran had reached an agreement that was applicable “everywhere, including Lebanon and elsewhere,” US Vice President JD Vance has outrightly rejected the Pakistani Prime Minister’s assertion about Lebanon being included in the agreement.
How Sharif could commit such a humongous faux pas is difficult to comprehend, but since it’s apparent that Pakistan is, in fact, an American “proxy” disguised as a peace negotiator, one can expect a few more bloopers in the days to come. For starters, multiple reports, like WION’s, claim that a section of the “Pakistani media are [sic] of the view that Pakistan’s diplomacy and its role in brokering a ceasefire by stopping the war that could lead to devastation merit a Nobel Peace Prize.”
The author is a retired Indian Army officer