{"id":948,"date":"2026-05-13T15:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T15:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/?p=948"},"modified":"2026-05-13T15:36:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T15:36:13","slug":"khawaja-asif-warns-kabul-of-delhi-like-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/13\/khawaja-asif-warns-kabul-of-delhi-like-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Khawaja Asif warns Kabul of Delhi-like response"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ISLAMABAD<\/strong>: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Wednesday warned Afghanistan that if Kabul failed to stop harbouring terrorists, Pakistan would respond in the same way it had against India last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing the National Assembly, Asif said: \u201cIf they are not ready, then what we did with Delhi, we will do the same with Kabul.\u201d The minister asserted that Afghanistan had effectively become an instrument of Indian policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt this time, Afghanistan has become India\u2019s proxy,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cKabul is fighting a Hindutva war against us,\u201d and that \u201cthere is no difference between Delhi and Kabul at this time,\u201d although Pakistan sincerely wished otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asif said Pakistan had repeatedly attempted to engage Afghanistan through diplomatic channels, including via Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, but those efforts had failed to yield results. \u201cIn negotiations in Qatar, Afghanistan agreed to everything but later refused to give guarantees,\u201d he said, adding that Kabul was willing to agree verbally but not in writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said Pakistan\u2019s primary demand was a written commitment from Kabul ensuring that Afghan territory would not be used to launch attacks against Pakistan and that terrorists operating there would be expelled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Kabul government is not willing to guarantee that its territory will not be used for attacks against Pakistan,\u201d he said. \u201cAfghanistan is not willing to expel terrorists from its territory. Afghanistan is not willing to stop terrorists either.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minister added that Pakistan remained open to talks if Kabul provided written assurances against terrorism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Referring to a recent attack in Bannu, Asif said many people had been martyred and that the Pakistan Army continued to make sacrifices. \u201cWe are being forced into war because of this situation,\u201d he said, adding that following India\u2019s defeat last year, New Delhi was now acting through Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the diplomatic front, Asif said backchannel efforts through a third country were still ongoing, though he declined to provide further details. \u201cTalks are still ongoing through a third country, but I cannot say much at this stage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pakistan remains embroiled in ongoing clashes with Afghanistan since February 2026. Operation Ghazab Lil Haq was launched following clashes along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, after Afghan Taliban forces fired on multiple locations, prompting swift military action by Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The neighbouring countries have been engaged in escalating hostilities along the frontier since then. The clashes intensified after Afghanistan launched a border offensive in response to Pakistani air strikes targeting terrorist positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A temporary pause in the operation was assumed in deference to Eidul Fitr and requests from Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkiye. The pause, effective from midnight on March 18-19, 2026, ran until March 23-24, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the operation then resumed in March and since then, the Pakistan Army has continued to respond to unprovoked aggression by the Taliban and Fitna al-Khawarij; a term used for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The defence minister also struck a cautiously optimistic note regarding domestic political alignment, saying the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government, which had previously been uncooperative, was now on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEarlier, we did not have the cooperation of the K-P government; now we do,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is good that we are all on the same page that terrorism must end.\u201d However, he warned that if Afghanistan remained unwilling to act, the situation could escalate further. \u201cThen it will be a war \u2014 an open war,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to a query from Asad Qaiser regarding military courts, Asif said the government would soon introduce legislation on the matter. He added that the right to appeal already existed and that several accused individuals had challenged military court verdicts. \u201cMany have challenged the jurisdiction of military courts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the minister acknowledged that the promised resources had yet to be provided. \u201cThe share due to former FATA is not only the responsibility of the federation; provinces must also contribute,\u201d he said. As soon as the provinces agree, he added, the region would receive its due rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Wednesday warned Afghanistan that if Kabul failed to stop harbouring terrorists, Pakistan would respond in the same way it had against India last year. Addressing the National Assembly, Asif said: \u201cIf they are not ready, then what we did with Delhi, we will do the same with Kabul.\u201d The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,16,2],"tags":[53,29],"ppma_author":[27],"class_list":{"0":"post-948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest","8":"category-national","9":"category-pakisstan","10":"tag-afghanistan","11":"tag-pakistan"},"authors":[{"term_id":27,"user_id":3,"is_guest":0,"slug":"afnanwasif","display_name":"Web Desk","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cbec8328241e98fefcd32e00f20f7a6b502086a0b95d395db4b1565c51681914?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":955,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948\/revisions\/955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}