New Delhi: Pakistanis are tired of their country’s relentless conflicts and would like a break. A week after Pakistan launched attacks on Afghanistan, the Taliban-led government retaliated late Thursday night. It marks among the most serious skirmishes along the Durand Line between the two countries in recent times.
One Pakistani X user called it the “tough life of a Pakistani”.
“We, Pakistanis, have a tough life. We stay up to follow up war and work in the morning so we can make enough money to have a good Internet connection so we can follow up a war at night,” an X account called ‘Sleepless in Lahore’ wrote.
Many Pakistanis, however, are angry with the Pakistani military.
“The only endgame Pakistan’s military junta has in mind as it pounds Afghanistan is its own survival – there is no getting out of this quagmire for Pakistan if it decides to go all in – the generals have failed at everything they have done since 2022 and they will continue to fail,” journalist Ali Mustafa wrote on X.
Other journalists like Shazeb Jilani, formerly with Dawn, agreed.
“Pakistani generals facilitated Afghan Taliban’s return to Kabul in August 2021. PM Khan celebrated it as ‘our victory’. It was a deeply flawed policy. It led to renewed cross border attacks in Pakistan. 4.5 yrs later, we feel compelled to go for an ‘all out war’ on Afghanistan,” said Jilani.
One angry X user, Zuha Malik, simply suggested: “Dear Afghan Mujahideen, please deal with Asim Munir as you see fit. Not just Pakistan, the entire Muslim world will thank you for it.”
Amid the conflict, Pakistani state-sponsored media made an ad mocking Afghans, and even Pakistanis are embarrassed.
The video mocks Afghans as “makers of tandoor” and “Indian proxies”. Pakistanis are calling out the “state approved racism in full display”.
Even politicians agreed.
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the grandson of the former president and a politician himself, called out the ethnic stereotyping and said, “I support our country in any armed conflict, I pray for a peaceful solution if there is to be any. However, to underestimate Afghan people and call them cooks and tandoor walas will blow up in our face. Ethnic stereotyping will not win a war, it will leave you less prepared.”
Another added, “The tandoor slur coming from an official source is disrespect of honest labour and stereotyping .. besides that the whole video is cringe. Plz differentiate between jokes made by twitter crowd/tiktokers and ministry of information. And that acha jee is peak cringe”.
A Pakistani account made light of the situation. “Ab pata kese chalega ke jung ka siren hai ya sehri ka” (How do we know whether the sirens are declaring a war or the sehri during Ramzaan?)
“Itni toh zindagi main khushiyan nhi dekhi jitni jangein dekh li hai,” X user Noor wrote.
Baloch journalist Kiyya Baloch added: “Pakistan’s army chief’s analogy, comparing India to a shining Mercedes and Pakistan to a dump truck full of gravel, now appears to fit the Afghanistan–Pakistan situation. In that framing, Afghanistan would be the gravel-laden dump truck and Pakistan the luxury Mercedes…
Another simply said: “Last 3 generations of Paki generals spent their entire professional careers trying to achieve ‘Strategic Depth’ in Afghanistan. After 100k+ casualties, billions lost in 2 provinces in open armed resistance, same Afghanistan is attacking their borders. S**t generals, s**t policies”.
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‘No winning’
Pakistanis don’t know what is worse — the fights against the Taliban leaders who were once given refuge in the country or the way Afghans in Pakistan are now being discriminated against.
“Some of you sound exactly like Zionists when you speak of Afghans, hope you realise that,” a user, Annie, wrote.
On Afghanis being called beggars, another added: “Even the most racist anti-Afghanistan Pakistanis admit that they never saw Afghan refugees begging in a society where begging is common. They have character, something we don’t value in Pakistan”.
Pakistani policy analyst Hussain Nadim wrote, “War is sick enough already; to cheer, and make light of the horrors is even more disgusting. There is no winning here, only more tragedy and pain for a region and its people on both sides that have suffered so much already for generations.”
Another user, Ahmad Mirza, retorted.
“Maybe I’m the wrong type of Pakistani but I can’t get behind celebrating the destruction of Afghanistan because a few Afghans bombed Pakistani cities. It’s the same logic as saying all Muslims are terrorists when a terror attack happens in the West,” he wrote on X.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)