Pakistan’s armed forces are fighting a three-front war brilliantly and have earned the admiration and respect of the world. The existential threat of terrorism is being fought relentlessly from the front foot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan, shrinking the space available to Indian-paid proxies.
- The author Brigadier (Retd.) Asif Haroon Raja, is a retired Brigadier General, war veteran, defence and security analyst, columnist, author of five books, ex-chairman TFP, Patron-in-chief CDS Think Tank, and takes part in TV talk shows.
- *The views and opinions expressed herein, and any references, are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of the Centre for Development and Stability (CDS).
Six times bigger India was taught a lesson of its life in the four-day war last May, leaving it with little capacity or courage to opt for another military misadventure. Badly mauled and humiliated, India resorted to cowardly acts of propaganda and proxy war. It has now begun using Afghanistan as a proxy to settle scores with Pakistan.
Isolated India again forged a strategic partnership with Afghanistan — a repeat of the 2011 arrangement during Hamid Karzai’s rule. After its humiliating defeat last May, India provoked Kabul to open a second front against Pakistan, assuring that an eastern invasion would follow to sandwich Pakistan.
Kabul was lured into thinking Pakistan was internally weak and that the dream of absorbing KP (including former FATA) and the Pashtun belt of Balochistan into the Islamic Emerite of Afghanistan (IEA) was attainable.
Like India, Afghanistan underestimated Pakistan and collided with the strongest armed forces of Pakistan on 10 October. Governed by misperception, the IEA believed Afghan Taliban forces and Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP) would easily capture numerous Pakistani border posts and the five crossing points along the 2,600 km Durand Line. They were taken aback when Pakistan retaliated with full force.
In the first round Pakistani forces captured 22 Afghan military posts and destroyed several terrorist camps and launchpads in depth. This took the wind out of their jihadism within hours; they repeatedly made frantic pleas for a ceasefire to retrieve dead bodies.
In the second round, ten more posts were captured. Spin Boldak Brigade HQ, Kandahar suicide and terrorist training camps, TTP senior leaders’ hideouts in Kabul, Gul Bahadur camps in Paktika, Khost and Paktia were smashed. No corner of Afghanistan was safe from Pakistan’s missiles and drones.
Scared, India did not come to the rescue of its strategic partner, nor dared to open the promised second front. Its leaders kept huffing and puffing in their homes and offices with impotent rage and indulged in empty rhetoric.
Meanwhile, sympathisers of India and Afghanistan and facilitators of Indian-sponsored proxies within Pakistan repeated their anti-Pakistan mantra, as they had during the war with India.
They abstained from praising the leadership of Field Marshal Asim Munir and continued to badmouth him. Instead of acclaiming the heroics of the Pakistan forces, they spread scary stories on social media claiming Pakistan had made a grave blunder by locking horns with the destroyers of three superpowers.
They warned that Pakistan could not fight a two-front war and insisted war was not the solution. They echoed Imran Khan — the so-called “Taliban Khan” — arguing that dialogue with the IEA and TTP was the only way.
The PTI government in KP maintained a pro-Kabul and pro-TTP policy, opposed military operations against TTP, and resisted the return of illegal Afghan refugees. Pakistan was blamed for not “giving peace a chance.”
Not a word was said about the unnatural alliance between extremist IEA and the Hindutva-driven BJP regime, or about the obnoxious remarks of Afghan foreign minister Mutaqqi during his Delhi visit. No sympathy was expressed for the shaheed in Pakistan, while counter-insurgency operations were condemned.
There was also no mention of Pakistan’s longstanding hospitality and generosity to Afghanistan since December 1979, including hosting five million Afghan refugees. Instead of acknowledging that, detractors glorified the Afghans, downplayed Pakistan’s sacrifices, and undermined Pakistan for political reasons.
Short of arguments, the traditional pessimists say that due to wrong policies and diplomacy, Pakistan is fighting wars on all fronts without international support. I remind them that honourable nations often fight wars alone; Pakistan has followed that principle.
India attacked former East Pakistan backed by the USSR and succeeded because of the betrayal of Bengalis — otherwise Bangladesh could not have been created. Sitting in the lap of the USA, India tried to further fragment Pakistan during the two-decade war on terror, but it failed because the nation remained united; the Pakistan Army and the ISI stood firm.
In May 2025 India attacked Pakistan thinking Pakistan was isolated and weak, similar to 1971. It assumed its proxy PTI would act like the Awami League; it failed because the nation gelled together. The hypocrites inside the country and in the neighbourhood are the root of trouble. The terrorists, their facilitators and the external abettors in Afghanistan are now being chased, cleansed and eliminated.
Afghanistan under Mulla Omar was a different country; now it has changed colours. The incumbent regime in Kabul has sold its conscience and honour to India and is biting the hands that sheltered, clothed and fed the Afghans for five decades.
With the grace of Allah, Pakistan has developed the capacity, capability and will to take on the three hissing cobras effectively — and, insha’Allah, they all will be neutralised.
The internal detractors cheer Pakistan’s enemies while abusing their own country and its institutions, even as they enjoy all the perks and privileges provided by those institutions.
They cannot digest their food or sleep well without cursing the government and the army, praising Pakistan’s enemies, and eulogising and worshipping the jailed Mahatma. They are worse than the ungrateful Afghans.
