Pakistan’s former military leader says the NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan could lead to India and Pakistan becoming involved in a proxy war in that country, the Hindustan Times reports.
Pervez Musharraf was an ally of the United States during much of his 1999-2008 rule. Now the key NATO ally in the “war on terror” lives under strict security, almost a prisoner in his own Karachi home. He faces criminal charges regarding his regime and death threats from the Taliban.
Musharraf praised the efforts of newly-elected President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani, to strengthen shaky Afghan-Pakistani relations. Pakistan’s support for democracy in neighboring Afghanistan is crucial to stability in the troubled region.
However, recent tensions between India and Pakistan threaten to completely undermine what fragile order exists in Afghanistan. The two nuclear-armed nations have been at loggerheads recently, with cross-firing along their disputed border at the highest levels in years.
“The danger for Pakistan is.. the Indian influence in Afghanistan,” Musharraf told reporters. “That is another danger for the whole region and for Pakistan because Indian involvement there has an anti-Pakistan connotation. They (India) want to create an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan.”
India and Pakistan have sought to win the allegiance of various groups that make up Afghanistan in addition to the central government in Kabul. India had reached out to the Tajik ethnic group of northern Afghanistan, and Pakistan has cultivated ties with the Pashtuns of the south and east, the Taliban’s traditional base of support. A proxy war in Afghanistan would probably involve regional these ethnic allies.
“If Indians are using some elements of the ethnic entities in Afghanistan, then Pakistan will use its own support for ethnic elements, and our ethnic elements are certainly Pashtuns,” Musharraf said.
“So we are initiating a proxy war in Afghanistan. This must be avoided.”