By Ajmal
Amid the region’s tangled geopolitical games, Pakistan, a country that has spent years presenting itself as a champion of the fight against terrorism, is now cultivating another destructive force to serve its own ambitions. The use of former Arbakis, the semi-military groups once trained as part of Afghanistan’s former security structure, marks a new chapter in Islamabad’s dangerous game of spreading division and insecurity across neighboring countries. What is taking shape today behind Pakistan’s military projects is nothing less than an effort to deepen ethnic tensions and push the entire region toward lasting instability.
The former Arbakis, left stranded and without support after the political changes in Afghanistan, have now become another tool in the hands of Pakistan’s military regime. They are being used against two of the region’s largest peoples, the Pashtuns and the Baloch. It is the old formula of “divide and rule,” inherited from the colonial era and now being put into practice once again under a different name.
By training and arming these hired fighters, Pakistan hopes to drive such a deep wedge between the Pashtuns and the Baloch that they will never again be able to stand together against the oppression they both face. The policy that history remembers as “divide and rule” is now being carried out with remarkable precision by Pakistan’s military regime.
Balochistan, a land rich in natural resources, has lived for years under the shadow of relentless repression by Pakistan’s military institutions. The army, largely controlled by the country’s ruling circles in Punjab, has pursued an organized campaign against the Baloch through state-backed death squads. These armed groups have been responsible for abducting civilians, torturing them, carrying out killings, and spreading fear wherever they operate.
Now, with the addition of newly trained Arbakis, Pakistan’s military regime wants to continue that hidden campaign in a way that makes denial even easier. These groups are not only being used against the Baloch. They are also deployed against Pashtun movements demanding their rights, including the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), which has long called for an end to militarization and injustice in the tribal regions.
At the same time, Pakistan is trying to use the Arbakis to fuel instability inside Afghanistan. For years, the country has been known for supporting armed groups, and after the return of the IEA, it lost much of the influence it once exercised in Afghanistan. In these circumstances, reviving Arbaki networks to undermine Afghanistan’s security and put pressure on the IEA has become another part of Islamabad’s plans.
Reports indicate that Pakistan is reorganizing and training these former semi-military elements in training centers across Balochistan and the tribal areas before using them in cross-border operations against Afghanistan.
This double game, supporting extremist groups on one front while claiming to fight them on another, remains one of the clearest features of Pakistan’s regional policy.
Pakistan’s project of sowing division threatens more than the security of neighboring countries. It also puts Pakistan’s own stability at risk. The Baloch and the Pashtuns have lived beside one another for centuries. Although tribal disputes have occurred from time to time, there has never been a history of lasting hostility between them. Research shows that both peoples see Pakistan’s central government, not one another, as the main source of the injustice and deprivation they have endured.
By dragging hired armed groups into this equation, Pakistan hopes to manufacture a new kind of ethnic conflict and divert attention from its own far-reaching abuses.
The truth, however, is that this policy will not achieve the goals its architects have in mind. The fire they are lighting will eventually spread back into Pakistan itself, driving the country even deeper into isolation and instability. History has shown again and again that those who set ethnic divisions ablaze are, in the end, consumed by the same flames.
