Pakistan’s Khawaja Asif warns of obliterating Afghan Taliban as Islamabad’s peace talks with Kabul ‘failed’

Pakistan said on Wednesday that peace talks with Afghanistan had “failed”, dashing hopes for a lasting truce following the region’s deadliest border clashes in years.

The violence, which left over 70 people dead and hundreds injured, followed explosions in Kabul on 9 October that the Taliban authorities blamed on Pakistan.

“Regrettably, the Afghan side gave no assurances, kept deviating from the core issue, and resorted to blame games, deflection, and ruses,” Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on X after four days of negotiations brokered by Qatar and Turkey, as reported by AFP.

“The dialogue thus failed to bring about any workable solution.”

Pakistan’s Khawaja Asif warns Afghanistan

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Wednesday warned that his country would “obliterate” the Afghan Taliban and drive them back into the caves if any future terror attacks occurred on Pakistani soil.

Asif made the statement on social media shortly after four days of discussions in Istanbul ended without progress on Pakistan’s key demand that the Taliban act against militants operating from Afghan territory.

Asif said that on the request of brotherly countries, Pakistan indulged in talks to give peace a chance, but “venomous statements by certain Afghan officials clearly reflect the devious and splintered mindset of the Taliban regime”.

“Let me assure them that Pakistan does not require employing even a fraction of its full arsenal to completely obliterate the Taliban regime and push them back to the caves for hiding. If they wish so, the repeat of the scenes of their rout at Tora Bora with their tails between the legs would surely be a spectacle to watch for the people of the region,” he said on X.

Earlier this month, Pakistan’s military launched attacks on what it said were hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban in Afghanistan, killing dozens of people whom it described as insurgents. Afghanistan said that the people killed were civilians and struck Pakistani military posts in response, claiming 58 Pakistani soldiers were killed.

Pakistan’s military said it lost 23 soldiers in the border fighting.

The two sides agreed to a ceasefire brokered by countries including Qatar on Oct. 19 in Doha, followed by four days of talks in Istanbul that ended inconclusively.

In a post on X, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif told Afghanistan’s Taliban government that “any terrorist attack or suicide bombing inside Pakistan shall give you the bitter taste of such misadventures.”

Kabul has not immediately responded to the breakdown of the peace talks or to Asif’s warning.

However, Afghanistan’s state broadcaster RTA reported that the negotiations stalled due to what it described as Pakistan’s “irrational demands.”

RTA stated that Islamabad sought guarantees that no attacks would be launched from Afghan territory, while the Taliban delegation maintained that the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, is an internal matter for Pakistan.

Pakistan has long accused Afghanistan’s Taliban government of ignoring the presence of Pakistani Taliban and other militants on its soil, a charge Kabul denies.

Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks, most claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, which is a separate group from the Afghan Taliban but has been emboldened since the latter returned to power in Kabul in 2021. Many Pakistani Taliban leaders and fighters have been living in Afghanistan since then.

Asif in a strongly-worded tweet also accused Kabul of “blindly pushing Afghanistan into yet another conflict” to preserve what he described as its “usurped rule and war economy.”

“Let me assure them that Pakistan does not require to employ even a fraction of its full arsenal to completely obliterate the Taliban regime and push them back to the caves for hiding,” he said.

Despite the failure of the talks, a ceasefire remained in place, and no new clashes were reported along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Both countries have shut all major crossings, leaving hundreds of trucks carrying goods and refugees stranded on both sides.

At the Chaman border crossing in southwestern Balochistan province in Pakistan, hundreds of Afghan refugee families and traders voiced frustration and anxiety over the failed talks.

“We came to know that the talks failed,” said Ajab Khan, an Afghan refugee waiting in a long queue of trucks loaded with household goods. “Now we are going back to Afghanistan, but it’s a scary situation. We don’t know how we will survive there.”

(With inputs from agencies)