Iran Press/Commentary: Pakistan has in return claimed that India and Afghanistan are encouraging terrorist groups in Pakistan to target it.
Although the exchange of claims and counter-claims is not a new phenomenon between the rival neighbors, India and Pakistan have recently drummed up allegations against each other in Afghanistan.
While New Delhi accuses Islamabad of proxy clashes over the crisis in Kashmir, Islamabad alleges that New Delhi is working against its interests in Pakistan's Balochistan Province and in Afghanistan.
South Asia experts hold that Afghanistan is re-emerging as the battlefield between Pakistan and India after they failed to settle their bilateral differences.
Because they are equipped with nuclear bombs, said Rahim Hamidi, India and Pakistan are not considering a direct military encounter but are following a proxy war in Afghanistan.
In the meantime, the people of Afghanistan have dearly paid for India and Pakistan using their country to settle their differences but the government in Kabul has not been able to keep the country out of their disputes.
To balance its interests, Hamidi added, Kabul at times approached Islamabad to convince it to cut support to armed groups, and when disappointed, warmed up its ties with New Delhi drawing Pakistan's intensified concerns.
People of Afghanistan whose country has been already the playing field for foreign occupying forces are demanding the regional powers to keep their difference away from its territory and instead cooperate to settle the crisis, the expert said.
It is logical to expect Pakistan and India to recognize the concerns of the other side and work with the regional powers to help Afghanistan out of the critical conditions it is facing.
Written by: Mahmood Boland Akhtar
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