The fact that Pakistan’s intelligence chief went on a rare visit to Tajikistan in the last days of 2024 means rumours that the Pakistani military removed Afghan Taliban check-posts from the Wakhan Corridor in the first week of the new year – still unconfirmed by Islamabad and fiercely denied by Kabul/Kandahar – are probably true.

Where there’s smoke there’s fire, after all, and recent regional developments all but confirm that a new great game is now effectively under way; one that involves the kind of cold interplay of espionage, sabotage and subversion that only the finest intelligence outfits can deliver.

A few points provide plenty of food for thought.

One, Pakistan’s airstrike in Afghanistan a week before the alleged incident in Wakhan and the joint Taliban-TTP retaliation confirm that the umbilical cord between the Pakistani military and the Afghan Taliban has been cut.

The jury is still out on who’s responsible for ending the long arrangement that emerged after the post-Soviet withdrawal........

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