The recent rocket shelling from across the Pakistani border into the Afghan soil once again gave birth to great tremors of criticism on every platform of the country. Both the houses of parliament, the presidential office, both the presidential candidates and other important members of government and society greatly condemned these attacks that resulted in the casualties of dozens of innocent and neutral citizens of Kunar province. Once again, the tensions between the two neighboring countries soared and the ties between them are touching the lowest point in the recent years.
As it is in the knowledge of readers, it is not the first occasion that these cross border tensions have jeopardized the relations of these two important neighbors. Whenever the rockets are fired from the Pakistani side, there starts a criticism from both the sides. If Afghan media and experts blame Pakistani security forces for their inadvertent and heedless rocket shelling, Pakistani media and experts show absolutely a different picture. According to the Pakistani media and security sources, Taliban militants enter Pakistani soil from the tribal areas of some of the Afghan provinces and when they are chased by Pakistani authorities, they return to the afghan soil. At times, they also fire rockets on the checkpoints of Pakistani forces and force Pakistani forces to retaliate by firing rockets against them. According to the Pakistani sources, Afghan government and military should control the militants who enter Pakistan from the Afghan soil.
On the other hand, we see the picture from an absolutely different angle. According to our media, Pakistani security forces keep firing rockets into the Afghan soil without any reason resulting in the deaths and injuries of dozens of innocent citizens.
Both the sides have always claimed to be innocent and accused the other for these civilian casualties. In such circumstances, the present trend of war of words becomes absolutely meaningless and is not going to help resolve the problem. At the same time, Afghanistan is not in position to worsen its relations with any of its neighboring nations. Keeping aside the differences, it is also a fact that we carry out the bulk of our trade transactions with Pakistan and it is also the only sea route access of Afghanistan for the foreign world. In such circumstances, the baseless criticism would make no good for the nation.
If our parliamentarians and top government officials are really sincere in their efforts to resolve this problem on permanent basis, they must seek the help of a third party who should send neutral observers and in the light of their report, both the nations should take constructive steps so that the loss of innocent lives from both the sides of border should be eliminated. This would be the real form of service for the innocents living in the regions bordering Pakistan.