Report alleges Pakistan army uses proxies, targets Afghanistan after US praise

Islamabad: Pakistan's military establishment behaves not simply as a "State sponsor of proxies", but as a proxy force baked by its own state apparatus - using civilian governments as diplomatic packaging while the army maintains strategic control.

When granted international validation, the military regime translates that legitimacy into operational freedom - intensifying coercion against Afghanistan, violating its sovereignty, and causing recurring civilian casualties documented by global media outlets and organizations, including the United Nations, a report detailed.

"Pakistan's military establishment has spent decades turning Afghanistan into a managed battlefield - an arena to be penetrated, pressured, and periodically punished so that no Afghan government can fully control its sovereignty or pursue an independent regional policy. That doctrine is usually packaged in the language of 'strategic depth,' 'counterterrorism', or 'Line of Control (LOC)/Durand Line security'," a report in 'Eurasia Review' detailed.

"In practice, it has looked like a repeatable cycle: build proxies, weaponize instability, sell 'solutions' to outside powers, and then reset the crisis whenever Afghanistan begins to slip outside Pakistan's control," it added.

According to the report, the recent escalations - marked airstrikes, drone attacks, and cross-border violence - reflect this pattern.

"What makes the latest phase distinct", it said, is the "recurring pattern of Washington validation followed by Afghan bloodshed" - moments when Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and "self-declared" Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir are publicly praised by President Donald Trump, "followed soon after by Pakistani attacks inside Afghanistan that Afghans and UN-linked reporting describe as involving civilian casualties." (IANS)

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