Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has accused the Afghan Taliban of failing to act against militants allegedly using Afghan territory to launch attacks inside Pakistan, particularly in the provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Speaking in Pakistan’s parliament this week, Asif rejected suggestions that Islamabad had not engaged sufficiently with Kabul, saying Pakistan had repeatedly attempted dialogue with the Taliban leadership.
“I have been to Kabul twice myself, it was three years ago, the then DG ISI was also with me. They (Taliban officials) used to believe everything but insisted that we could not give anything in writing," Asif said, PTI reported.
The Minister revealed that discussions with Afghanistan had also taken place through mediation efforts involving Qatar and Turkey, but said those initiatives failed to produce lasting outcomes.
Asif urged those advocating negotiations with Afghanistan to secure concrete assurances on peace and warned against politicising security challenges linked to cross-border militancy.
Highlighting the human cost of the conflict, he said 4,317 Pakistani soldiers had lost their lives in counterterrorism operations since 2022.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have remained strained over the past year, with tensions frequently spilling over into clashes along the shared border.
PoK unrest: Fazlur Rehman slams Pak govt, militaryAddressing Pakistan's National Assembly, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) chief Fazlur Rehman directly challenged the government's approach to the worsening situation in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). According to sources cited by CNN-News18, the veteran politician urged authorities to open dialogue with residents of the region and identify what he described as the "non-negotiable" demands of the Kashmiri people. Rehman also accused Pakistani authorities of suppressing public demands instead of addressing them. Expressing concern over increasing attacks on military cantonments and police stations, Rehman warned that the situation posed a broader challenge to Pakistan's security. |
