Attack on a police post in Pakistan, 15 dead. Munir accuses India

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (Ttp) is one of the extremist formations that, together with the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (Iskp), aspires to overthrow the government in Islamabad in order to establish a caliphate.

Apart from the high number of casualties, operations of this kind risk heavy consequences at the moment because they could reignite the fighting along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Last February, the two former allies fought for days. Clashes took place partly on the border and partly deep inside Afghan territory, claiming hundreds of victims.

Islamabad struck the capital Kabul and the provinces of Kandahar and Paktia with air raids that targeted both targets linked to alleged extremist groups and installations directly linked to the Taliban government. Since then, fighting has subsided, with occasional skirmishes along the border, but no official ceasefire has been reached, despite attempts by China to mediate.

There is such a difference between the Pakistani and Afghan armed forces in terms of men and means that it is unthinkable that Kabul could think of fighting a conventional war against the neighbouring nuclear power.

Islamabad has long accused the government in Kabul of harbouring militants who use Afghan territory to plan attacks in Pakistan. The Taliban have always rejected the accusations. The two countries have had good relations for years.

In Islamabad's military doctrine, the neighbouring country has always been important to ensure that 'strategic depth' that in the event of an invasion by India, would enable the Pakistani Armed Forces to withdraw beyond the Durand Line, reorganise and launch a counter-offensive. The Taliban's return to power in 2021 has, somewhat surprisingly, soured relations between the two countries.

Another recurring accusation on the Pakistani side is that of India using Afghan territory to coordinate cross-border attacks by extremist groups and irredentists in Balochistan through its network of consulates.

Speaking at the Army Headquarters in Rawalpindi a year after the conflict with India, the Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir returned to attacking New Delhi for what he de facto considers a low-intensity proxy war. In his speech, the army chief - who is unanimously considered the most powerful man in the country - claimed that India would intensify its 'state-sponsored terrorism and strategy of supporting it'.

India 'has realised that it is impossible to defeat Pakistan on the traditional battlefield. Consequently, it has once again resorted to the disgusting behaviour of terrorism,' Munir said, pointing out that the activities are also conducted from Afghan territory. "Pakistan," Munir continued, "has only one demand of Afghanistan: stop supporting Fitna al Khawarij and Fitna al Hindustan on India's directive.

Fitna al Khawarij and Fitna al Hindustan are two formulas used by Islamabad to define the secessionist forces operating in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and those characterised by the Pakistani government as Philo-Indian in Balochistan.

New Delhi, which has hosted senior officials of the Kabul government more than once in recent months, has always rejected Islamabad's accusations. But - displaying a good dose of political realism - the Hindu nationalist government of PM Narendra Modi makes no secret of the fact that it wants to increase exchanges and collaboration with the ruling Taliban regime in Afghanistan, thus contributing to the Pakistanis' sense of encirclement.

Last October, India hosted the foreign minister of the Taliban regime Amir Khan Muttaqi for a week. During the visit, Muttaqi - who has been under UN sanctions since 2001 and was granted a temporary exemption from the travel ban for the occasion - met his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar, one of the most important ministers in the executive led by PM Modi. At the end of the visit, India announced the reopening of its embassy in Kabul.