In 2014 the US Army will be moving out of Afghanistan. We have already started seeing the movement of US equipment out of Afghanistan. There are also reports of how the US Army is ensuring that all equipment and items are destroyed or scrapped before they leave ensuring that the Government of Afghanistan or Pakistan should not benefit from these equipments.
For Pakistan this whole setup has been a big problem for many years there was no threat to Pakistan on the Pak-Afghan border before the arrival of US Army in Afghanistan. Now more than 14 Indian consulates have opened on the border of Pak-Afghan facilitating the flow of weapons, money and personnel which has increased by 100 fold across the Pak-Afghan border. The latest captured terrorist, Lateef Mehsud, the deputy leader of Baitullah Mehsud group, has claimed (via US interrogation) that they received money, equipment and training in Afghanistan, through the Indian consulates.
Considering the fact that Pakistan did not have to face these threats before the arrival of the US and there were no terrorists coming from Afghanistan into Pakistan to create terrorist activities in Pakistan, before the US war but now due to the US war in Afghanistan, Pakistan has to deal with terrorist, illegal money laundering and cross border attacks from Afghanistan as the US and Afghanistan governments have allowed the setup of Indian consulates on Pak-Afghan border to flourish.
Since the reason for all these problems in Pakistan is the war in Afghanistan, therefore I believe the US should at least donate all the equipment, including helicopters, drones, night vision goggles, border patrol cars etc to Pakistan that has suffered at the hands of the terrorists and can use this equipment to stop cross border terrorism. Helping the Pakistan government in securing these borders will also ensure that drug smuggling and cross border terrorism is reduced on the Pak-Afghan border, ensuring peace and security for many years to come.
SHAHRYAR KHAN BASEER,
Peshawar, November 5.