ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif Wednesday said Pakistan entered talks at the request of friendly countries to give peace a chance, but recent hostile remarks from some Afghan officials reveal what he called the fractured and deceitful mindset of the Taliban regime.
Khawaja Asif on his X, formerly Twitter, warned that Pakistan would not need to use its full military strength to dismantle the Taliban, adding that it could push them back into hiding. He said a repeat of the group’s rout at Tora Bora with fighters fleeing in disgrace would be a spectacle for the region.
The minister expressed regret that, in his view, the Taliban are driving Afghanistan toward renewed conflict to cling to their illegally seized power and to preserve a war economy that benefits them. He accused the regime of sounding hollow war cries while beating the drums of war to maintain a collapsing façade.
“If the Afghan Taliban are determined to wreck Afghanistan and harm its people again, so be it,” Asif said. He rejected the claim that Afghanistan is the “graveyard of empires,” saying Pakistan never made that claim and that, instead, Afghanistan has often been a battleground exploited by external powers.
Asif cautioned war proponents within the Taliban who profit from instability that they have misread Pakistan’s resolve. He vowed that if the Taliban choose to fight, their threats would amount to little more than “a performative circus”. The minister added that Pakistan has tolerated what he described as treachery and mockery for too long. He warned that any terrorist attack or suicide bombing inside Pakistan would provoke a harsh response and urged the Taliban not to test Pakistan’s capabilities, calling such a choice “perilous.”
