- Defence minister issues strongest warning yet after Istanbul talks collapse
- Says Pakistan engaged in peace talks at request of friendly nations
- Terms Afghan officials’ remarks “venomous” and reflective of fractured mindset
- Warns any terror attack on Pakistan will invite a decisive response
ISLAMABAD: Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif on Wednesday issued a stark warning to the Afghan Taliban, saying Pakistan would not need to use “even a fraction of its full arsenal” to obliterate the insurgent regime if it persisted with confrontation—remarks that followed the collapse of recent talks in Istanbul.
Asif’s comments, posted on X, came after diplomacy mediated by friendly countries failed to produce a breakthrough between Islamabad and Kabul. While Pakistan engaged in talks at the behest of those seeking peace, the defense minister condemned what he described as “venomous” statements by some Afghan officials, saying they exposed a fractured and dangerous mindset within the Taliban leadership.
“If they insist on confrontation, Pakistan does not require even a fraction of its full arsenal to completely obliterate the Taliban regime and push them back into the caves for hiding,” he wrote, invoking the Taliban’s 2001 rout at Tora Bora. Asif accused the Taliban of dragging Afghanistan back into conflict to preserve their rule and sustain a “war economy”, asserting that their public rhetoric masked a desire to perpetuate instability.
While on the request of brotherly countries who were persistently being beseeched by Taliban Regime, Pakistan indulged in talks to give peace a chance, venomous statements by certain Afghan officials clearly reflect the devious and splintered mindset of Taliban regime.
Let me…— Khawaja M. Asif (@KhawajaMAsif) October 29, 2025
“If the Afghan Taliban regime is determined to ruin Afghanistan and its people again, so be it,” he added, countering romanticized accounts of Afghanistan as the “graveyard of empires” by calling it instead a “playground of empires” and warning would-be “warmongers” that they had gravely misjudged Pakistan’s resolve. He was careful to note that Pakistan did not claim imperial ambitions but reiterated his assessment that Afghanistan had too often become a victim of its own cycles of violence.
Asif also issued a clear deterrent to militants: any terrorist attack or suicide bombing on Pakistani soil would be met with a decisive response, he said, promising that such acts would “give [the perpetrators] the bitter taste of such misadventures.” “We have borne your treachery and mockery for too long, but no more,” he warned.
The stern rhetoric underlines rising tensions along the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier after the October clashes and subsequent, ultimately fruitless, negotiations in Istanbul. Islamabad has repeatedly demanded that the Taliban prevent anti-Pakistan groups from operating from Afghan territory; the Taliban deny such permissiveness.
Asif’s statement signals a posture of hardened deterrence from Pakistan: while open to diplomacy, Islamabad is prepared to act decisively if it deems its security imperiled. The fallout from the failed talks and the tenor of the defense minister’s remarks are likely to shape the next phase of diplomacy—and potential escalation—between the two neighbors.
