Thanks to the Afghan turbulence, the subcontinent saw the return of Pakistan to the centre-stage of world politics, a free run to its nuclear weapon programme, the destabilisation of Jammu and Kashmir, the unending terrorist onslaught on India, Indo-Pak military tensions, and the spread of religious extremism.

As the tectonic plates rumble again in Afghanistan, the story is no longer just about the resurgence of the Taliban. It is about the Talibanisation of Pakistan.

The Pakistan Army appears increasingly unable to control developments on either side of the Durand Line. The western troops in Afghanistan feel it necessary to mount cross-border attacks against the militant strongholds in Pakistan’s tribal areas. There is open war between foreign jihadis and local militants on Waziristan.

The writ of the Pakistani state, always tenuous in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, is now under threat in the settled areas of the North West Frontier Province. Emboldened extremist groups engage the security forces in armed confrontation, seen most recently in the border town of Taank, and have begun to impose their will on the civil society in Peshawar. Stick-wielding, burqa-clad female students of a seminary last week showed that even Pakistan’s capital is no longer immune.

The message from across the border is that the Afghan war, both in its military and ideological terms, has spilled over into Pakistan. For three decades, Islamabad was driven by a burning desire to extend its strategic depth into Afghanistan. The Pak Army is now confronted with the prospect of losing effective control in its own territories across the Indus.

... contd.