The US is not only showing stressful impatience with Pakistan after giving rewards of major non-NATO ally (MNNA) status and $35 billion over decades but threatens to undermine Pakistani sovereignty over the issue of harbouring terrorists on its soil.
The message is clear to all that the US is going to get after terror modules Islamabad establishment and Pakistani generals have nurtured and sheltered for years as part of their forward strategic policy to fight the proxy war to siege its neighbours, both India and Afghanistan, since it is a low-cost warfare option.
The Trump administration is showing keen interest to eliminate terrorism from Afghanistan in an innovative way. The US idea is to be more effective on the ground but spend less for the entire operation.
Thus, the US wants to rope in India which it thinks can provide more hard intelligence on the ground and simultaneously do developmental work. Any increase of India’s work or a greater recognition of India in Afghanistan is a bad word for Pakistan.
Although Pakistan may be unhappy over Trump administration’s decision for reviewing on Afghanistan policy but the US is going to hunt inside Pakistani territory all the active terror groups. This is making Pakistan nervous about the Trump administration’s attitude.
President Trump, like President Obama before him, increasingly relies on the Pentagon’s Special Operations Command to hunt militants around the globe. Trump also has embraced special operations inside Pakistan’s FATA region.
He is considering sending more forces to Syria and Afghanistan to play a larger role in those wars and has given commanders greater authority to launch attacks without White House approval.
This is going to be a bitter experience for Pakistan as it was the same command which took out Osama bin Laden. Now Trump wants India to provide actionable intelligence to eliminate terrorists inside Pakistani territory of FATA and all across the Durand Line.
Thus, Pakistan is worried that if China and Russia are not going to help Islamabad then the US will virtually make a run inside Pakistani territory with impunity. The Pakistani PM Abbas and Army Chief General Bajwa had a secret talk with both China and Russia in October.
Although both have assured support but on the ground Pakistan will be a loser due to large sum of aid that Islamabad has been reaping for years in the name of Coalition Support Fund.
Meanwhile, Pakistan launched a secret campaign against the US on the issue of Afghanistan. Islamabad privately told select group of diplomats belonging to Russia, China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia that it is the US which is injecting ISIS into Afghanistan.
Later, Trump administration confronted Pakistani foreign minister in Washington over the issue and asked to stop such malicious campaign. No doubt, the ISIS-K is a grave menace to the region.

TRUMP, lIkE ObAMA, INCREAsINgly RElIEs ON THE PENTAgON’s sPECIAl OPERATIONs COMMAND TO HUNT MIlITANTs AROUND THE glObE

But it is not clear whether the US injected them into Afghan theatre. Rather Iran has informed India and other countries that it is Pakistan military which is using ISIS in Afghanistan against the Ghani government. Its geographical position is strategically important.
To expand its Caliphate to South Asia, the ISIS-K has established strongholds in Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan, the eastern part of Afghanistan and a gateway to the rest of South Asia. And in the north, it is operating predominantly in Kunduz, Baghlan, Jowzjan and now in Badakhshan province, from where it can easily infiltrate central Asia and China.
US President Donald Trump turned up the heat this summer when he accused Pakistan of playing a double game in Afghanistan and upbraided Islamabad for sheltering “agents of chaos”. Islamabad has repeatedly denied the claims and accused Washington of ignoring the thousands of Pakistani lives lost in its struggle with militancy.
The recovery of Boyle, Coleman, and their children came weeks later, with Pakistan using its role in securing their freedom to urge the US to trust it is doing its best. But, Pakistan’s desire for strategic depth aside, a crackdown on the Haqqanis might not be easy in a tribal society where social relations matter.
Overall, the US decision to operate inside FATA with the help of Afghanistan and India is giving sleepless nights to generals of GHQ in Rawalpindi. If India starts supplying actionable intelligence on terrorists based in FATA and elsewhere and a pact is written down then it would be end of Pakistan’s “empire of global terrorist factory”.
Overall, India is quite supportive of US strategy on Afghanistan. But India has its reservations due to Iran and Russia who are its traditional allies on the Afghanistan front. Therefore, India is keen to provide vital support to the US and assist Afghanistan greatly but not talk much publicly.
At the same time, the US is worried that if India does not step into Afghanistan scenario then it will be too late as the Americans are worried that China-PakistanTurkey are slowly funding and arming the Taliban to counter ISIS. Even neutral players like Russia and Iran are now playing dubious games in Afghanistan.
After Donald Trump’s new policy towards Afghanistan, the US officials have told Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj that India needs to do more to keep Afghanistan safe.
The Americans are asking India to train more and more Afghan military and counter terrorism officials on a regular basis. India had last year trained 220 Afghan intelligence officials in various academies in India to deal with terrorism and stop organised crimes in border regions of Afghanistan.
Indeed, Afghan foreign minister Salahuddin Rabbani who visited India in September first week has said that the Taliban is using more advanced weapons from Pakistan, China, Russia and smuggled weapons of Syrian markings originating from Iran.
The Taliban had mortars which could barely hit targets within 2 km, now have mortars which can target more than 7 km and similarly rockets used by Taliban were always landing far from the target, now they are hitting Afghan Army posts with more accuracy and at a distance of 12 km.
Now Afghan foreign minister is asking India for more direct involvement of training and equipment of Afghan Army. But India is reluctant to play a hard role in Afghanistan at the moment but can offer tremendous facilitation of Trump’s new policy.
Now the US is keen that India should focus more on training of Afghan military running into 20,000. During his India visit in September, Rabbani mentioned that the US military is failing to do the training and most Afghans are not able to follow instructions due to the typical English accent of Americans.
But the Trump administration is also caught in a series of scandals involving training missions in Afghanistan from time to time. Most American training agencies which are private companies are facing court cases and corruption charges.
It has been found by the US Congress that nearly half a billion of American taxpayers’ funds were wasted by contractors hired by the United States government to train Afghan intelligence personnel.
The funds were spent between 2010 and 2013 by the US Department of Defense, in order to train several thousand members and a few dozen aspiring trainees of the Afghanistan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF).
Two companies, Legacy Afghanistan R&D and Afghanistan Source Operations Management, oversaw the training programme. It was primarily executed by a contractor, Imperatis Corporation, and a subcontractor, New Century Consulting, at a total cost of $457 million to the US taxpayer.
But at the end Afghan officers deserted services due to poor quality of training and maximum pressure and bad behaviour of instructors. Now the US wants India to fast track the training programmes for Afghans so that a bigger battle can be fought as the Taliban and ISIS are regrouping.

AfgHAN fOREIgN MINIsTER Is AskINg INDIA fOR MORE DIRECT INvOlvEMENT Of TRAININg AND EqUIPMENT Of AfgHAN ARMy

The US has also offered India vital access to its Afghan bases for coordination purposes. Under its new Afghan policy, Trump is also threatening Pakistan to give up some territory along the Durand Line border which should be settled with Afghanistan urgently. If the US enters into FATA then Pakistan’s best kept secret can come out open and the bargaining chip will be lost forever.