2021 anti-Pakistan protests
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- Pakistani involvement in War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) and the Republican insurgency in Afghanistan
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The 2021 anti-Pakistan protests were a series of protests against Pakistan occurring in Afghanistan, India, Iran, the United States and other countries (mostly by the Afghan diaspora) in opposition to alleged Pakistani involvement in the war in Afghanistan and the subsequent Panjshir conflict.
"#SanctionPakistan" became a social media trend from the beginning of August 2021, as Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani accused Pakistan of actively supporting the Taliban.[1] The result of Afghans using this anti-Pakistan hashtag led to "wider calls" on the United Nations Security Council to sanction the country for supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan.[2] As the Taliban insurgency in 2021 grew, and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan collapsed, protests in front of Pakistani embassies and consulates began, accompanied by calls from some western voices such as former Canadian politician Chris Alexander, to sanction Pakistan.[2][3]
Ryan Clarke, a senior fellow at the East Asian Institute of Singapore stated "Pakistan has a small fraction of strategic control over an Afghan Taliban that is now a far more capable and experienced fighting force." Pakhtun activist Afrasiab Khattak said the “Taliban is in a way an instrument of Pakistan’s ‘strategic depth’ in Afghanistan. Pakistan is very happy with the Taliban advances; Pakistani generals, I mean – the civilian government has no role in shaping policy.”[2] As the Taliban came to occupy most of Afghanistan, protests against Pakistan intensified as allegations emerged claiming that Pakistan was supporting the Taliban against the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan in the Panjshir conflict.[3]
Pakistan denied involvement in the war, and said the Taliban's rapid advances were the fault of the Afghan National Army, which surrendered en masse without fighting.[4]
Some western observers blamed the ineffectiveness of the corrupt Afghan National Army and government for their loss in the war, as well as the fact that many Afghan factions had agreed not to fight the Taliban.[5][6]
Thomas Johnson, author of Taliban Narratives: The uses and power of stories in the Afghanistan conflict, stated “There are certain people who blame Pakistan for everything because it’s very easy. I think the situation on the ground is much more complicated than that," and "You also have to look at the Kabul government’s corruption and it’s [sic] lack of legitimacy. You have a wide variety of reasons to assess (for what’s unfolding in Afghanistan).” [7]
Similarly, scholars Tara Vasei and Ross Garnstien in their paper The Forgotten History of Afghanistan-Pakistan Relations argue Afghanistan's ongoing aggression towards Pakistan, including interference in its internal issues for three decades going back to its independence eventually prompted the Pakistani government to leverage support to extremist groups within Afghanistan to counter the hostile government in Kabul through internal instability, like the Afghan method of doing the same within Pakistan. They argue Pakistan's concerns of constant Afghan interference inside Pakistan has long been overlooked internationally, promoting Islamabad to seek a series counter-attacks against by taking advantage of right-wing extremists there and using them proxies to counter-attack Kabul. They argue Afghanistan's refusal to accept the internationally recognized Durand Line is the crux of the problem.[8]
