Editing Mohammad Daoud Khan (section)

===Relations with Pakistan===
{{further|Durand Line}}
As during his time as prime minister, Daoud Khan again pressed on the question of [[Pashtunistan]], again leading to sometimes tense relations with Pakistan.

Daoud hosted General Secretary of the [[National Awami Party (Wali)|National Awami Party]] [[Khan Abdul Wali Khan]], [[Ajmal Khattak]], Juma Khan Sufi, Baluch guerrillas, and others. Khan's government and forces also commenced training of anti-Pakistani groups to conduct militant action and sabotage in Pakistan. The campaign was significant enough that even one of Bhutto's senior colleagues, minister of interior and head of the provincial branch of [[Pakistan Peoples Party|Bhutto's party]] of/in the then-[[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa|North-West Frontier Province]] (renamed [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]] in 2010), [[Hayat Sherpao]], was killed, ostensibly on the orders of the later-acquitted Awami Party. As a result, Afghanistan's already strained relationship with Pakistan further dipped and Pakistan likewise started similar kinds of cross-border interference. By 1975, [[List of Prime Ministers of Pakistan|Pakistani Prime Minister]] [[Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto]], through its [[Inter-Services Intelligence]] (ISI), had begun to engage in promoting a [[proxy war]] in Afghanistan.

Since coming to power, under pressure from the PDPA and to increase domestic Pashtun support, Khan took a stronger line on the Pashtunistan issue and promoted a proxy war in Pakistan. Trade and transit agreements with Pakistan were subsequently severely affected.

The year 1975 was a watershed in Afghan-Pakistan relations. Pakistan blamed Afghanistan for unrest in [[Bajaur District|Bajaur agency]] and the bombing of a [[Pakistan International Airline|PIA]] B707 at Islamabad airport in 1975.<ref name="ISI-2016">{{cite book |last1=Sirrs |first1=Owen L. |title=Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate: Covert Action and Internal Operations |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-19608-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SzGTDAAAQBAJ&q=b707 |language=en}}</ref> The 130 passengers of PIA B707 had deplaned before the explosion took place and thus no one was harmed in the explosion inside the aircraft.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ranter |first1=Harro |title=ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 707-373C AP-AWV Islamabad International Airport (ISB) |url=https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19750705-1 |website=aviation-safety.net |access-date=28 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Blast Hits a Jet in Pakistan After Passengers Debark |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/07/07/archives/blast-hits-a-jet-in-pakistan-after-passengers-debark.html |website=The New York Times |date=7 July 1975}}</ref>

At the same time, Afghanistan also faced several short lived uprisings in retaliation in eastern Afghanistan and in [[Panjshir Valley#History|Panjshir valley]], which Afghanistan blamed on Pakistan. There was also deployment of additional troops by both the countries along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.<ref name="ISI-2016"/>

The same year Kabul was also quietly negotiating with Islamabad to defuse the tensions between the two countries.<ref name="Soviet-1985"/> In early 1976, relations between the two countries improved and the leaders of the two countries, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Douad Khan, exchanged visits. Daoud Khan was also worried about the growing power of communists within his government so he started improving his relations with Pakistan and Iran.<ref name="ISI-2016"/> The same year Pakistan also provided aid to Afghanistan to help alleviate the suffering caused by earthquake and floods in northern Afghanistan. This gesture by Pakistan had helped mollify Afghan public opinion about Pakistan.<ref name="Soviet-1985">{{cite book |last1=Arnold |first1=Anthony |title=Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion in Perspective |date=1985 |publisher=Hoover Press |isbn=978-0-8179-8213-3 |pages=63–64 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=REwmr2bFYfkC&pg=PA64 |language=en}}</ref>

By October 1976, the head of Pakistan intelligence agency, [[Ghulam Jilani Khan|Jilani]] was informing a US diplomat that Afghanistan was no longer creating troubles for Pakistan.<ref name="ISI-2016"/> By August 1976 relations with Pakistan had improved to a high degree.<ref name="Soviet-1985"/> Later on, while promoting his new foreign policy doctrine, Daoud Khan came to a tentative agreement on a solution to the Pashtunistan problem with Ali Bhutto.<ref>{{cite web |title=Afghanistan – Mohammad Zahir Shah (1933–73) {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Afghanistan/Mohammad-Zahir-Shah-1933-73 |website=www.britannica.com |access-date=28 December 2021 |language=en}}</ref>