Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif on Wednesday warned that Pakistan would not need to employ even a fraction of its “full arsenal” to obliterate the Afghan Taliban. The defence minister’s remarks came after the talks between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban in Istanbul failed. In the statement posted on X, Asif said Pakistan engaged in talks with the Taliban — at the request of friendly countries seeking peace — but condemned what he described as “venomous” comments by some Afghan officials, which he said revealed a fractured and dangerous mindset within the Taliban regime. 

“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, evoking the Taliban’s 2001 rout at Tora Bora. Asif accused the Taliban of dragging Afghanistan into renewed conflict to preserve their rule and sustain a “war economy.” “Despite their hollow war cries, they beat the war drums to maintain a crumbling facade,” he said. 

“If the Afghan Taliban regime is determined to ruin Afghanistan and its people again, so be it.” Countering the famous narrative of Afghanistan as the “graveyard of empires,” Asif said the country had been “a playground of empires” and warned those he called “war mongers” in the Taliban that they had misjudged Pakistan’s resolve.Asif stated that Pakistan certainly doesn’t claim to be an empire, but Afghanistan is definitely a graveyard, surely for its own people.

 He cautioned that any terrorist attack or suicide bombing inside Pakistan would be met with decisive response, saying such actions would expose the threats as “performative” and come at the perpetrators’ peril. “We have borne your treachery and mockery for too long, but no more”, he added. “Any terrorist attack or any suicide bombing inside Pakistan shall give you the bitter taste of such misadventures”. 

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)