It is said that the United States has completed two to six percent of its withdrawal from Afghanistan, with the equivalent of over 60 cargo planes of material so far removed ahead of the September deadline.

But the US action has given birth to a new cycle of violence in this landlocked country. The US has always demonstrated an ambivalent approach to the Afghan conundrum. The outbreak of renewed violence following the start of US troops withdrawal was expected, it is highly painful nevertheless. A high-profile Afghan television journalist, for example, was killed, a day after the Taliban warned the media against ‘biased reporting’. The extended Troika in particular is required to make efforts aimed at creating peaceable conditions in a country that has suffered too much and for too long. This new bout of violence constitutes a serious cause of concern for Pakistan in particular. Pakistan, too, has suffered too much and for too long.

Javed Husain (Islamabad)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021

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