THE hasty decision of the Kabul Government to recall its Ambassador and senior officials from Islamabad following brief ‘kidnapping’ of the daughter of the envoy, citing security concerns, is a vivid indication of some hostile forces in play to damage relations between the two countries.
Pakistan has rightly described the move as ‘unfortunate and regrettable’ as it comes at a time when the reported abduction and assault of the Ambassador’s daughter in Islamabad was being investigated and followed up at the highest level on the instructions of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The security of the Ambassador, his family and personnel of the Embassy and Consulates of Afghanistan in Pakistan had been further beefed up.
Initial probe into the incident of so-called ‘kidnapping’ revealed contradictions in the stand taken by the daughter of the Ambassador and attempts have also been made to distort the available evidence that could unearth the real story.
It was because of all this that Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad categorically stated that ‘this was not an abduction at all’ but an international conspiracy involving India’s notorious security agency RAW adding that the Ambassador’s daughter had first claimed that her phone was stolen, “and later handed her phone over to the police but with the data deleted”.
The manipulation of the phone data and review of the CCTV footage give credence to the conspiracy theory aimed at maligning Pakistan.
Islamabad is thoroughly investigating the incident and a true picture is likely to emerge within days and with this in view the Kabul Government should have waited for the outcome of the probe.
Otherwise too, there had been more serious incidents like the repeated attack on Pakistan Embassy in Kabul and managed terrorist attacks across the Durand Line into Pakistan territory but Pakistan always demonstrated its extreme patience for the sake of smooth running of bilateral relations.
There are reasons to believe that both the Afghan Government and India were under great pressure in Afghanistan in the face of the Taliban onslaught and they have joined hands to scapegoat Pakistan.
The world is fully alive to such machinations and the ongoing probe is expected to expose this nexus further.
