Bajaur Campaign

Incursion of Bajaur
Date1960 - 1961
Location
Bajaur, Along Pakistan-Afghanistan Border
Result
  • Decisive Pakistani victory
  • Afghan Army routed with many either surrendered or killed[1]
Belligerents
 Afghanistan  Pakistan
Local Pashtun Tribesmen

Background

Relations between the two countries were strained when Afghanistan refused to accept Pakistan in the United Nations as a sovereign state, the only country to do so.[2] More over Afghanistan claimed the western provinces of Pakistan.[3] In 1948 Afghan armed and funded proxies inside Pakistan in the region of Tirah (Khyber) and Razmak (Waziristan). In late 1950s, Afghan army with artillery support attacked Dobandi in Balochistan and occupied Chaman-Quetta Railway link which was an important strategic pass. Pakistani army retook the pass after a week of fighting making Afghan forces to retreat back.[4] Relations were further deteriorated when in 1951 an afghan national Saad Akbar Babrak Mardood assassinated Pakistani Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan in Rawalpindi during a public rally. On March 30, 1955, Afghan demonstrators attacked and burned Pakistani embassy and consulates in Kabul, Kandahar and Jalalabad, the diplomatic relations between both the states were severed.[5]

Incursions

Between 1960-1961 thousands of Afghan troops disguised as local militias crossed the porous Pakistan-Afghan border into the semi-autonomous Bajaur agency of Pakistan now part of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, in hope to manipulate the events in the area and annex the region. Afghanistan deployed thousands of troops with tanks along the border and frequently attacked Pakistani tribesmen and military forces from the posts made on mountains near the border.[6] This incursion was repelled by Pakistani forces and local tribesmen inflicting heavy casualties on afghan infiltrators. Pakistan Air Force bombed numerous afghan posts inside Afghanistan and camps near the border which forced the Afghan forces to retreat and halt the attacks, resulting in Pakistani victory.[7] Several Afghan troops inside the Pakistani territory near the border surrendered. The surrendered Afghan troops were paraded before the international media which caused further embarrassment for Afghanistan.[1]

References
  1. Tomsen, Peter (2013). The Wars of Afghanistan: Messianic Terrorism, Tribal Conflict and the Failure of Great Powers. Hachette UK
  2. "Pakistan and Afghanistan". Institute for the Study of War.
  3. Hilali, A. Z. (July 5, 2017). "US-Pakistan Relationship: Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan". Taylor & Francis – via Google Books.
  4. "Breaking the myths of Pakistan ruining Afghanistan | Pakistan Today". www.pakistantoday.com.pk.
  5. "Pashtunistan". www.globalsecurity.org.
  6. http://yalejournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Article-Gartenstein_Ross-and-Vassefi.pdf
  7. https://web.stanford.edu/group/tomzgroup/pmwiki/uploads/1303-1961-06-KS-AJG.pdf
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