Pakistan massively enhanced the funding for Islamists in Afghanistan, hoping to bury ethnic nationalism. That strategy has now backfired spectacularly.
Pakistan failed to understand the fiercely independent psyche of the Afghans and Pashtun nationalism, which has dominated politics in Afghanistan since its emergence in 1747.
Pakistan aimed to convey a message to the West about its counterterrorism efforts and show China that it has control over the CPEC routes. However, both messages fell flat.
This confrontation looks subcontracted—escalation to re-establish Pakistan's indispensability to outside capitals while squeezing Afghanistan back under an old paradigm.
The Wakhan Corridor, located in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province, borders PoJK, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and China’s Xinjiang — once linking these regions through the strategic Silk Road.
After strikes, Afghanistan withdrew from a planned tri-nation series with Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Strikes reported hours after Pakistan and Taliban representatives agreed to extend a 48-hour truce.
Pakistan reportedly conducted a series of airstrikes in Afghanistan's southeastern Paktika, breaching ceasefire agreement between the two neighbouring countries.
The Afghan names have become a thorn in their side, since Pakistan now drives the narrative that the Taliban is essentially fighting a proxy war against the country for India.
Pakistan’s foreign office said ceasefire with Afghanistan came into effect ‘with mutual consent’, while Taliban maintained Islamabad ‘requested and insisted’ on it.
For an industry globally classified as hazardous, protections such as health insurance and a provident fund for workers are necessities. In Sivakasi, they remain elusive.
The industry forecasts exports are set to grow 16% in 2025-26, boosted by surplus domestic production and a drive to push into 26 underserved global markets with strong potential.
Indigenisation level will progressively increase up to 60 percent with key sub-assemblies, electronics and mechanical parts being manufactured locally.
It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.
COMMENTS