Bajaur Campaign
Part of the Afghanistan–Pakistan skirmishes

General Musa Khan inspects captured Afghan soldiers
DateSeptember 1960 – September 1961
Location
Bajaur, Pakistan
Result

Pakistani Victory

  • Afghan invasion repelled
  • Deterioration of relations
Belligerents
Afghanistan
Pashtun Tribesmen[1]
Supported by
Soviet Union (via diplomatic, alleged equipment provided)[2]		  Pakistan
Pashtun Tribesmen[3] Supported by
United States (via diplomatic, alleged equipment provided)[2]
Commanders and leaders
Zahir Shah
(King of Afghanistan)
Daoud Khan
(Prime Minister of Afghanistan)		 Ayub Khan
(President of Pakistan)
Gen. Musa Khan
(Cdr-in-Chief, Army)
Mian Ghulam Jilani
(Force Commander)
Strength
1,000 personnel (claim by AAC)[2] Unknown

The Bajaur Campaign refers to an armed conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan that took place from September 1960 to September 1961 in Bajaur, Pakistan. The conflict was initiated by Afghan Prime Minister Daoud Khan, who sent Royal Afghan Army troops and Pashtun tribesmen across the porous border into Bajaur in 1960.[4] The Afghan army incursion was ended by following Pakistani airstrikes in Kunar.[3][1]

As a result of this, diplomatic relations between the two nations were cut off and trade ceased for 18 months until relations were restored following the resignation of Daoud Khan and through mediation from American President John F. Kennedy and Iran's Mohammad Reza Shah.[5][1] Tensions between the two nations wouldn't flare up again until the 1973 Coup brought Daoud Khan back into power.

Background

The Afghanistan-Pakistan border

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.[6] 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.[7]

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.[8]

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.[9]

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.[10] 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.

Afghan intrusion

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.[1] 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.[7]

A retired Pakistan Air Force F-86F Sabre from the No. 26 Squadron "Black Spiders" on display at Nur Khan Airbase.

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. 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.[11][12][13][2][1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Riedel 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Jun 1961 – 'Pakhtoonistan' Dispute. – Military Operations in Frontier Areas. – Pakistani Allegations of Afghan Incursions" (PDF). Keesing's Record of World Events. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  3. 1 2 Wahab, Shaista; Youngerman, Barry (2007). A Brief History of Afghanistan. Infobase Publishing. p. 123. ISBN 978-0-8160-5761-0.
  4. ↑ Blood, P.R.; Baxter, C.; Dupree, N. Hatch; Gouttierre, T.E.; Newell, R.S. (2001). "Afghanistan: A Country Study". In Gladstone, Cary (ed.). Afghanistan Revisited. New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc. p. 111. ISBN 1-59033-421-3.
  5. ↑ Says, Rahmat Hamid (15 February 2010). "Mohammad Daud Khan". The Khaama Press News Agency.
  6. ↑ "Pakistan and Afghanistan". Institute for the Study of War.
  7. 1 2 Gartenstein-Ross, Daveed; Vassefi, Tara (22 February 2012). "The Forgotten History of Afghanistan-Pakistan Relations". Yale Journal of International Affairs. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  8. ↑ Hilali, A. Z. (2017). US–Pakistan Relationship: Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. Taylor & Francis. pp. 42–47. ISBN 0-7546-4220-8. Retrieved 20 June 2022 – via Google Books.
  9. ↑ Hali, Sultan M (12 August 2016). "Breaking the myths of Pakistan ruining Afghanistan". Pakistan Today. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  10. ↑ "Pashtunistan". www.globalsecurity.org.
  11. ↑ Asfandyar Bhittani (12 November 2017). "The Heroes Of Bajaur". Frontier Pakistani.
  12. ↑ "Jun 1961 – 'Pakhtoonistan' Dispute. – Military Operations in Frontier Areas. – Pakistani Allegations of Afghan Incursions" (PDF). Keesing's Record of World Events. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  13. ↑ Jackson, Robert. "Pakistan's Sabres at War". PAKISTAN INSTITUTE FOR AIR DEFENCE STUDIES. Archived from the original on 30 April 2003. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
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