By: Gulbadin Hekmatyar | Courtesy: Afghan Media
The bloody series of wars between India and Pakistan has begun once again. The two countries have already experienced three major wars and many minor wars, all of which were related to the Kashmir issue. Since the day the British divided Kashmir into two parts, this region and its oppressed people have been continuously victims of bloody wars.
After Palestine, the Kashmir tragedy is an old and deep wound in the body of the Islamic Ummah. But this war is fundamentally different from previous wars in that this time both sides have become nuclear powers. If this war is not contained and leads to the use of nuclear weapons, such a war will have no winners and the responsibility for it will lie with those who started it.
The war that led to the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan was also one of these wars. India was practically involved in this war. Bangladesh separated from West Pakistan in 1971. This separation was considered the greatest victory and achievement of India. In connection with this event, large and widespread demonstrations were held in many Islamic countries. The separation of Bangladesh and India’s involvement in it were condemned.
In Afghanistan, the Muslim Youth Movement also held a demonstration and a large gathering in Zarnagar Park. At that gathering, Martyr Engineer Habib-ur-Rahman gave an impressive speech. I was in prison at that time and was prevented from participating in those protests and gatherings. What I am writing about Bangladesh today is a reflection of the same stance taken by the Muslim Youth Movement about 54 years ago, not a new view or statement.
From the day Bangladesh was founded, when Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rahman took power, until his political successor, his daughter Sheikh Hasina, fled and took refuge in India—except for a brief period—all power in the country was held by this family, and its government was influenced by Delhi. His daughter Sheikh Hasina became prime minister five times. Finally, in 2024, another uprising against the family’s rule broke out, and after extensive bloodshed, the protesters were able to reach the prime minister’s palace. Hasina managed to escape and take refuge in India. India blamed Pakistan for the youth uprising and the fall of the pro-India government. As a result, the rivalry between Pakistan and India entered a new and sensitive phase.
Although Pakistan was a major contributor to the US occupation of Afghanistan—US troops arrived by land and air from Pakistan—and from 2001 to 2014, all US supplies came first from Pakistan and then from Russia, the US still preferred India over Pakistan. The reason was that India was considered a strategic partner of the US against China, while Pakistan remained an ally of China.
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During the American presence in Afghanistan, India had the opportunity to establish a large intelligence presence and security operations in two Pakistani provinces – Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – that felt deprived and complained about the central government. Although there were occasional protests against the central government in these areas in various forms, during the 20 years of American occupation, these protests took a serious and armed form.
Most researchers believe that the main reason for this situation is that the US allowed India to freely pursue its intelligence activities. Along with many other privileges, India was also given a special privilege that the head of the Afghan National Security Agency would always be entrusted to people who were pro-India and through this institution India would act against Pakistan. A large part of the budget for the National Security Agency’s intelligence activities against Pakistan was provided by India.
After the Taliban’s resurgence, and especially after the Bangladesh incidents of 2024 and the fall of the pro-India government, relations between Delhi and Islamabad became more tense. Not only did the wave of bloody explosions, attacks, assassinations, mass attacks on buses and trains, and the daily killing of dozens of citizens and government employees continue in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but the situation also spread to other Pakistani provinces. Pakistani officials attributed all these incidents to RAW, India’s intelligence agency, but refrained from taking any direct action against India.
It was the first attack on tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir in years. No one claimed responsibility. Although the attack was small compared to the large-scale attacks that have taken place in Pakistan in recent years, the Indian response was so severe, so swift, and so violent—that every analyst assumed that India was well prepared for such an attack.
They considered the intensity and spread of security incidents in Pakistan as a prelude to this attack. The situation shows that India is once again testing its full potential and intends to seize the remaining part of Kashmir that is under Pakistani control. The tense political situation in the country, the intensity and spread of security and armed attacks, economic problems, and strained relations between Kabul and Islamabad have encouraged Delhi to take advantage of this opportunity and try its luck once again to seize the remaining part of Kashmir.
At the time of writing, an immediate and complete ceasefire was declared at the level of foreign ministers of the two countries. This action came after Pakistan launched large-scale operations in response, which India was unable to prevent.
With the announcement of the ceasefire, many people like me have been pleased because they do not want to witness another bloody war in this region. They are bothered by the shedding of the blood of innocent and oppressed people. They consider only a war legitimate that is for self-defense and against the aggressor, a war in which the life and property of no non-combatant is harmed.
We condemn the killing of tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir in the same way that we condemn bombings in mosques, public gatherings, and attacks on buses and trains in Pakistan or any other country. We see these actions as the work of mercenary, aimless fighters; contract killers, uncultured, and aimless whom anyone can hire for their own nefarious purposes.
No true believer, committed Muslim, or sincere freedom fighter would choose such a path. Just as we in our own country demand justice, an Islamic system, and a righteous government that is acceptable to the Afghan people, we are also in favour of justice and against oppression in all Islamic countries, including neighbouring countries. We consider defending rights to be the inalienable right of every human being, and we consider defending the oppressed and standing up to the oppressor as the duty of faith of every Muslim.
One should neither commit oppression nor tolerate oppression, and in this constant struggle between right and wrong, one should use the same method that religion and faith have determined. We do not like insecurity and war in neighbouring countries as much as we do not want it in our own country.
This war showed that Delhi had miscalculated, as did all those who considered India superior and stronger than Pakistan in all areas. Especially those who accompanied the beginning of the war with joy, applause, pointing, misinterpretations, false analyses, and false propaganda in support of one side, but everything went against their expectations.
The Pakistani military considers itself victorious in this war and celebrated its victory with massive public demonstrations. They claim to have shot down many Indian aircraft and crippled India’s air defence system, including the S-400, to such an extent that a large number of Pakistani aircraft were able to simultaneously carry out successful operations against important targets in dozens of cities and return safely.
On the other hand, India denies this claim and threatens to continue “Operation Sindoor” even after the ceasefire.
We lament the plight of those who are happy about the outbreak of this war. Among them are individuals and media outlets who once cheered and applauded the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and again the American invasion. Some of them supported one side or the other in this conflict without realising that the fire and smoke of this bloody war may reach war-torn Afghanistan today or tomorrow.
We consider human brotherhood and ethnic equality to be religious principles. Parties and movements based on ethnicity or regionalism are in conflict with these principles. Disadvantaged ethnic groups have the right to fight for their rights, and every Muslim is obligated to support the oppressed, but this fight should not be accompanied by slogans and strategies that cause hatred and enmity between brotherly ethnic groups and lead to the division and disintegration of nations and countries.
Demand your right and fight for it—but in the broad ranks of the nation and with the slogan of unity and solidarity. A Muslim cannot, and his faith does not allow him, to support a party or movement that chants separatism and divisionism. Ethnic movements and slogans are designed by colonial powers to divide nations in their colonies. Islam condemns ethnic nationalism, ethnic slogans, ethnic fanaticism, and incitement to such fanaticism.
The Quran says that opposition to every prophet came from the ignorant tribes who said to the prophet: “We cannot leave the religion of our fathers for you; what you say is new and foreign, and we do not find it in the religion of our fathers.”
Dividing people on the basis of ethnicity and regionalism and favouring one group over another is religiously forbidden and rationally unjust, inhumane, and harmful. Every purposeful movement and struggle must be based on the principles of right and wrong, injustice and justice, and good and evil, not on ethnic and regional differences.
In Pakistan, the Baloch Liberation Movement is a movement that wants to separate from Pakistan and establish an independent Baloch state, not a movement to join another country. You must know that when the British withdrew from this region, they divided the Baloch into three parts (Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran), precisely because they had fought the British. Just as they divided the Muslims of India into three parts: East Pakistan, West Pakistan, and the Muslims who remained in India. They did the same with the Kashmiris, dividing them into two parts, and they did the same with the Pashtuns, drawing the Durand Line between them. These actions were both to take revenge on the Muslims and the tribes who had fought against the British, and to create permanent conflicts and conflicts in the region.
When the British invaded India, it was under Muslim rule. For more than seven centuries, Muslims had held the land together and defended it against all invasions. The British understood very well that if they left India undivided, power would once again fall into the hands of Muslims. If an independent state called Balochistan were to be formed today, it would lead to a revision of the entire map of the region and would also encourage the Baloch of Iran and Afghanistan to join it. This situation would be unacceptable neither for Pakistan, nor for Afghanistan, nor for Iran. The only country that might see such a situation in its favour is India.
Who is so naive as to think that if the Baloch secede from Pakistan under the leadership of the Baloch Liberation Movement, they will join Afghanistan or Iran, or that the Afghans will be given the opportunity to form a Greater Afghanistan?!
The truth is that the partition of Pakistan will lead to a redrawing of the map of the region and will be a prelude to the partition of Afghanistan. India will not only occupy Punjab, Sindh, and Kashmir, and will not hand over Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to Kabul on a platter of gold, but will also install its puppet government in Kabul.
If India cannot tolerate independent and powerful countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, or Pakistan in its neighbourhood, how can it accept an independent and powerful Afghanistan that has ruled Delhi for centuries? Will they ever forget the rule of the Ghaznavids, Ghurids, and Abdali and the destruction of Somnath at their hands?
As long as power in India is in the hands of extremist and fundamentalist Hindu groups, neither will India’s minorities achieve their human rights, nor will India accept a free and independent Islamic government in its neighbourhood. Just as India played a practical role in the separation of Bangladesh, and continued to provide financial and military support to the Tamil Tigers, an ethnic minority group, in the 1980s, and from 1987 to 1990, its forces were actively present in Sri Lanka, supporting one side and opposing the other. During the jihad against the Soviet Union, India was the only country in the region that supported the Russians and the communists and opposed the Mujahideen.
Everyone, both Afghans and our neighbours, must understand this truth: Afghanistan today is not in a position to provide military or financial assistance to anyone. The country itself needs help from others. The situation is such that it cannot even help returning refugees if foreign charities do not provide tents. Anyone who wants to choose the path of armed struggle should learn from the experience of the Afghans. We defeated the communists and then the Soviet forces. The Soviet forces were forced to retreat. This defeat and desperate retreat led to the fall of the drunken and arrogant Soviet empire.
But when it came time for the Mujahideen to form an Islamic government, the same countries that considered the Soviet presence in Afghanistan a serious threat to themselves and supported the Mujahideen formed a common front against the Mujahideen. Just as Washington and Moscow took a common position against the Mujahideen and put aside their competition, Riyadh, Tehran, and other rival countries did the same. The Jabal al-Sarraj coalition against the Islamic Party was also formed with the mediation and support of the intelligence services of these rival countries.
We hope that the day will come when true justice and lasting peace will prevail in Afghanistan and throughout the region.
