The trouble is that warmaking has become almost the norm these days. From the smouldering trenches of Ukraine to the devastated ruins of Gaza, and now to the arid frontiers of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the world seems to have resigned itself to conflict as a form of governance.

The latest flashpoint, Pakistan’s first-ever aerial bombardment of Afghan territory, represents not just an escalation but a reckoning. It is the natural culmination of decades of Islamabad’s cynical statecraft: creating monsters it cannot now contain.

On October 9, Pakistan launched drone attacks on Kabul and Paktia, the very day the Taliban’s Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was being hosted in Delhi. The symbolism was unmistakable.

In an attempt to reassert control over its turbulent borderlands, Pakistan has set off a chain reaction that may well spiral into another regional war. Within days, violence snowballed, with Pakistan claiming to target Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) camps but instead killing civilians, including a local cricket team in Paktia’s Urgon district. Afghanistan responded by pulling out of a tri-nation cricket series, a small but potent act of defiance that reflected the fury brewing in Kabul.

To be fair, Pakistan itself had suffered a grievous blow just hours earlier, when a suicide bombing killed 17 soldiers, an attack claimed by the TTP. The chronology may remain murky, but the outcome is clear: two neighbours bound by blood, faith, and history are now at each other’s throats.

The Pattern Of Violence

It’s not hard to trace how we arrived here. Pakistan’s internal security situation has deteriorated sharply over the past year. Its own Centre for Research and Security Studies recorded a 46 per cent spike in violence during the first three quarters of this year compared to all of last year.

For a country long accustomed to playing the victim even as it nurtured terror, the chickens have come home to roost.

The military establishment’s approach remains tragically formulaic. Rather than addressing the........

© News18