By Seema Ilahi Baloch
LET us begin with some clichés: Afghanistan has always been the playground of global power rivalries. It will remain so. Pakistan and Afghanistan, at the intersection of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East, in China’s neighbourhood, are of great strategic importance in an increasingly multipolar world. Power is returning from the West to the East. And since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, there is a resurgence of extremist groups and increased instability in our region.
The recent terrorist incident in Pahalgam, followed by a four-day skirmish between India and Pakistan and a subsequent ceasefire — or what many call a ‘pause’ — has left the region on edge.
India’s unsubstantiated allegations against Pakistan for the Pahalgam attack seem at odds with the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2025, published by the Institute of Economics and Peace, which ranks Pakistan second, India fourteenth, and Afghanistan ninth among the countries most affected by terrorism.
In Pakistan, total deaths f