Bajaur Campaign

File:Afghanistan-Pakistan border.png (traced red), which was demarcated between the Emirate of Afghanistan and British India before being inherited by the Dominion of Pakistan during the partition of British India.]]

{{Further information|Third Anglo-Afghan War|Partition of India}}

Relations between the two states of Afghanistan and Pakistan have been strained ever since the latter gained independence from the United Kingdom following the Partition of British India in August 1947. Following partition, the Kingdom of Afghanistan was the only country to vote against the Dominion of Pakistan's admission into the United Nations as a recognized sovereign state.{{Cite web|url=http://www.understandingwar.org/pakistan-and-afghanistan|title=Pakistan and Afghanistan|website=Institute for the Study of War}} After the independence of Pakistan, Afghanistan operated agents who operated in north-western Pakistan, distributing large amounts of money, ammunition and even transistor radios in an effort to sway loyalties from locals Pakistanis to Afghanistan.{{cite web | url=https://www.yalejournal.org/publications/the-forgotten-history-of-afghanistan-pakistan-relations | title=The Forgotten History of Afghanistan-Pakistan Relations | first1=Daveed | last1=Gartenstein-Ross | first2=Tara | last2=Vassefi | date=February 22, 2012 | work=Yale Journal of International Affairs | access-date=20 June 2022}}

{{Main article|Durand Line}}

Moreover, Afghanistan did not recognize the Durand Line that is the Pakistan–Afghanistan border (which Pakistan inherited from British India and which Afghanistan marked itself). Due to these large, illicit territorial claims over the western regions of Pakistan—roughly corresponding with the modern-day Pakistani provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa—relations between the two countries soured, and Afghanistan started funding proxies and initiated regular skirmishes with Pakistan along the border.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gEErDwAAQBAJ&dq=afghanistan+pakistan+1952&pg=PA47 | title=US–Pakistan Relationship: Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan | first=A. Z. | last=Hilali | pages=42–47 | year=2017 | publisher=Taylor & Francis | isbn=978-0-7546-4220-6 | via=Google Books | access-date=20 June 2022}}

{{Main article|Afghanistan–Pakistan border skirmishes}}

By 1948, Afghanistan was providing armaments and funding to proxies inside the Tirah and Razmak regions of northwest Pakistan. In the late 1950s, the Royal Afghan Army, with artillery support, attacked the Pakistani village of Dobandi and subsequently crossed the border and occupied a strategically vital railway link in Chaman−Quetta. The incursion prompted a large Pakistani offensive, following which the Pakistan Army retook the pass and pushed Afghan troops back to the border after a week of heavy fighting.{{Cite web | url=https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2016/08/12/breaking-the-myths-of-pakistan-ruining-afghanistan/ | title=Breaking the myths of Pakistan ruining Afghanistan | first=Sultan M | last=Hali | date=August 12, 2016 | work=Pakistan Today | access-date=20 June 2022}}

Relations between the two states severely deteriorated in 1951, when Saad Akbar Babrak, an Afghan national, assassinated the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, in Rawalpindi during a public rally. On 30 March 1955, Afghan demonstrators attacked and torched the Pakistani embassy in Kabul and consulates in Kandahar and Jalalabad, following which diplomatic relations were severed by Pakistan.{{Cite web|url=https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/pashtunistan-1947.htm|title=Pashtunistan|website=www.globalsecurity.org}} The areas surrounding Bajaur and other parts of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border saw extensive armed border skirmishes between Afghanistan and Pakistan from 1949 to 1971.

Between 1960 and 1961, Royal Afghan Army troops along with thousands of Pashtun tribesmen from Afghanistan crossed the extremely porous Pakistan–Afghanistan border and entered the semi-autonomous Bajaur Agency of Pakistan in an effort to annex the region.{{sfn|Riedel|2014}} During this time, Afghanistan also deployed thousands of troops with tanks and artillery along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border and frequently attacked locally stationed soldiers from mountainous posts.

In September 1960 Afghan irregulars and regular military troops in civilian clothing crossed into Bajaur.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XxtrBgAAQBAJ&q=%E2%80%9CPakistan+Fears+Afghan+Invasion%2C%E2%80%9D+Reuters%2C+Sept.+23%2C+1960.++%E2%80%9CIncursion+by+Afghans+%E2%80%98Beaten+Back%2C%E2%80%99+Says+Pakistan%2C%E2%80%9D+Guardian+%28London%29%2C+Sept.+29%2C+1960.++%E2%80%9CAfghans+Report+Pakistani+Clash%2C%E2%80%9D+Reuters%2C+Oct.+8%2C+1960.&pg=PA294|title=When Afghanistan invaded Pakistan|isbn=978-0-8122-4690-2 |last1=Christine Fair |first1=C. |last2=Watson |first2=Sarah J. |date=18 March 2015 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press }}{{cite journal|url=https://www.yalejournal.org/publications/the-forgotten-history-of-afghanistan-pakistan-relations|title=forgotten history of Pak Afghan relations|journal=Yale|date=22 February 2012 }} Two other raids took place in May and fall of 1961.Hasan, “Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations,” p. 16 They engaged with local tribesmen led by Nawab of Khar {{Cite web|url=https://defence.pk/threads/the-heroes-of-bajaur.528252/|title=The heroes of Bajaur|date=13 November 2017 }} and retreated after suffering heavy casualties. Pakistan bombed Afghan force using its air force but instead of escalating the conflict, this de-escalated the situation for some time. The newly formed Bajaur Scouts also engaged in combat against the Afghan troops.{{Sfn|Dupree|2014|p=539-540}}

In September 1960, Afghan tribesmen and some regular troops under civilian cover entered the area of Dir as part of the wider Bajaur Campaign to help Nawab Jahan Khan against the Pakistan-backed opposition. The Afghan lashkars were forced to withdraw and this proved to be the casus belli for the Pakistani government to launch the operation for the overthrow of Nawab.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oAzACwAAQBAJ&dq=Afghan+incursion+Dir+1961&pg=PA1858|title=Afghan infiltration into Dir|isbn=978-1-317-18459-1 |last1=Qassem |first1=Ahmad Shayeq |date=16 March 2016 |publisher=Routledge }}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dbc5AQAAIAAJ|title=Pakistan,it's ideology,it's foreign policy |last1=Hussain |first1=Arif |date=1966 }}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WEllcRGb1NEC&q=Afghan+incursion+Dir+1961|title=Events in 1960-61|date=1962 }}

In March 1961, Afghanistan reportedly provided weapons and ammunition to proxies under the leadership of Fazl Akbar, to incite an uprising in the Batmalai district of Bajaur.{{Sfn|Leake|2017|p=222}} Pacha Gul was advised to go before an aerial counteroffensive could be triggered against his forces for serving as an agent for Afghanistan and providing resources worth of 170 million Afghanis, cash, and arms to the Bajaur tribesmen which were to incite a uprising against Pakistan.{{Sfn|Kaur|1985|p=110}}{{Sfn|Dupree|2014|p=539-540}} The Pakistan air force acted by bombing the area where the ammunition dump was stored. The Pakistani air force then claimed to have destroyed a major ammunition dump during the raid.{{Cite web |title=Delving into the Masked Chronicles: Unveiling the Overlooked Pre-1979 Historical Landscape of Pakistan and Afghanistan |url=https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/delving-masked-chronicles-unveiling-overlooked-pre-1979-ayesha-fayyaz |access-date=2024-01-24 |website=linkedin.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=The Afghan proxy war {{!}} Military Amino Amino |url=https://aminoapps.com/c/military-amino/page/blog/the-afghan-proxy-war/2vYl_2zaHNumnMjopzrRDmNxZV80k3E08qQ |access-date=2024-01-24 |website=Military Amino {{!}} aminoapps.com}}{{Cite web |last=SULTAN M HALI |date=12 August 2016 |title=There's only so much insult a friend can bear |url=http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2016/08/12/comment/breaking-the-myths-of-pakistan-ruining-afghanistan/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160813125947/http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2016/08/12/comment/breaking-the-myths-of-pakistan-ruining-afghanistan/ |archive-date=13 August 2016 |access-date=25 January 2024 |website=Pakistan Today}}{{Sfn|Dupree|2014|p=539-540}}

After the Raid Pakistan increased the presence of security forces present along the Durand Line. The local tribes did not accept the presence of Pakistan armed forces other than those of locally raised units such as Bajaur scouts.{{Sfn|Dupree|2014|p=539-540}} The locals protested to the government troops by ambushing them on the very first night and caused casualties among the units, which convinced the government to withdraw the units. {{Sfn|Dupree|2014|p=539-540}}{{Sfn|Gladstone|2001|p=111}}

In May 1961 skirmishes took place in the area of the Khyber Pass. Pakistani government announced that regular Afghan troops had struck Pakistani border posts. The Pakistani air force bombed Afghan positions in retaliation. On 22 May, Pakistani warplanes bombed a base of raiding Afghan troops in Baganandail.

File:Pakistani F-86F (31125).jpg from the No. 26 Squadron "Black Spiders" of the Pakistan Air Force, on display at Nur Khan Airbase in Punjab.]] The Pakistan Air Force sent F-86 Sabre jets in order to support the Pakistani Forces and local Pashtun tribesmen of Pakistan who were fighting the Afghan infiltrators. The F-86 Sabre jets also executed bombing runs on Royal Afghan Army positions in Kunar, Afghanistan, thus leading Afghan forces to fall back to the international border. The airstrikes destroyed machine guns and mortar nests in Kunar that were used to attack Pakistani border posts. Pakistan Air Force also bombed Baganandail and Afghan intruders in Bajaur, Dir and near the Khyber pass. Although the Royal Afghan Air Force had seven MiG-17 squadrons and another MiG-21 squadron being operationalized, no known dogfight has been recorded between the two sides.{{cite web|url=https://frontierpakistani.wordpress.com/2017/11/12/the-heroes-of-bajaur/|title=The Heroes Of Bajaur|author=Asfandyar Bhittani|website=Frontier Pakistani|date=12 November 2017}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.piads.com.pk/users/piads/jackson1a.html |title=Pakistan's Sabres at War |access-date=2023-05-23 |website=PAKISTAN INSTITUTE FOR AIR DEFENCE STUDIES |last=Jackson |first=Robert |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030430050802/http://www.piads.com.pk/users/piads/jackson1a.html |archive-date=2003-04-30}}{{sfn|Riedel|2014}}

{{Portal|Afghanistan|Pakistan}}

• Durand Line
• Afghanistan–Pakistan border skirmishes

{{Reflist}}

• {{Citation |last=Dupree |first=Louis |title=Afghanistan |date=2014 |orig-date=1973 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yvr_AwAAQBAJ |publisher=Princeton University Press |language=en |format=ebook |isbn=9781400858910}}
• {{cite book|last=Gladstone|first=Gary|title=Afghanistan: History, Issues, Bibliography|publisher=Novinka Books|year=2001|isbn=1-56033-105-4}}
• {{Cite book |last=Kaur |first=Kulwant |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GH_HAAAAIAAJ&q=Pakistan-Afghanistan%20Relations%20by%20Bettina%20Robotka |title=Pak-Afghanistan Relations |publisher=Deep & Deep Publications |year=1985 |isbn=9780836418040 |language=en}}
• {{Cite book |last=Leake |first=Elisabeth |title=The Defiant Border The Afghan-Pakistan Borderlands in the Era of Decolonization, 1936-1965 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2017 |isbn=9781107126022 |language=en}}
• {{cite book|last=Riedel |first=Bruce |title=What We Won: America's Secret War in Afghanistan, 1979-89 |publisher=Brookings |url=https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Chapter-1-3.pdf|date=2014}} “Chapter 1: The Afghan Communists”

Category:Military campaigns involving Afghanistan

Category:Military campaigns involving Pakistan

Category:Airstrikes conducted by Pakistan

Category:Conflicts in 1960

Category:Conflicts in 1961

Campaign

Category:20th century in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Category:Military history of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa