Khawaja Asif says Pakistan has ‘borne treachery too long’, warns Kabul of retaliation to any terrorist attack

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif warned on Wednesday that Pakistan had borne the Taliban rulers’ treachery and mockery for too long and that any terrorist attack or any suicide bombing will “give it the bitter taste of such misadventures”.

In a post on X, the defence minister said that Pakistan had indulged in talks to give peace a chance on the request of brotherly countries, who were persistently being beseeched by the rulers in Kabul, however, “venomous statements by certain Afghan officials clearly reflect the devious and splintered mindset of Taliban regime”.

The defence minister’s statement comes after Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar said early on Wednesday that the latest round of talks between Islamabad and Kabul in Istanbul failed to bring about any workable solution as “the Afghan side kept deviating from the core issue and evaded the key point“.

Dozens were killed this month along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan in the worst such violence since the Taliban took power in Kabul in 2021.

Meanwhile, Asif accused the Taliban rulers in Kabul of “blindly pushing Afghanistan into yet another conflict, just to retain its usurped rule and maintain the war economy that sustains them”.

“Despite fully knowing their inherent limitations and hollowness of their war cries, they are beating the war drums to maintain their crumbling facade. If the Afghan Taliban regime is madly hell-bent upon ruining Afghanistan and its innocent people once again, then so be it,” he said.

The defence minister also referred to the phrase “graveyard of empires” used for Afghanistan in connection with the historical instances of several nations failing to conquer the country.

Pakistan, Afghanistan agree to immediate ceasefire after Doha talks

“As far as the narrative of ‘graveyard of empires’, Pakistan certainly doesn’t claim it to be an empire but Afghanistan is definitely a graveyard, surely for its own people. Never a graveyard of empires but certainly a playground of empires you have been throughout history.”

The war mongers amongst the Taliban regime, who have vested interests in the continuation of instability in the region, should know that they have probably misread our resolve and courage. If the Taliban regime wants to fight us, the world will INSHAALLAH see that their threats are only performative circus!“

Background

The clashes began after an air strike this month on Kabul, the Afghan capital, targeting the head of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group separate from the Taliban that rules Afghanistan.

The TTP terrorists responded with attacks on Pakistani military posts along the length of the 2,600 km (1,600 miles) border.

Pakistan accuses the Taliban of allowing the TTP to operate with impunity inside Afghanistan, from where it launches attacks on Pakistani security forces. Kabul denies this.