Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has escalated tensions by again linking India with Islamabad’s ongoing conflict with Kabul. The Pakistani Defence Minister also declared an end to Afghanistan ties and asked all Afghans living in Pakistan to return to their “homeland.”
His comments came as the deadline for the 48-hour ceasefire ended at 6 pm local time. However, media reports said that the truce was extended as representatives of the two sides were set to meet in Doha, Qatar, to find a solution to the current tension.
“There will no longer be protest notes or appeals for peace; no delegations will go to Kabul. Wherever the source of terrorism lies, it will have to pay a heavy price,” Asif said in a post on X.
He alleged that Kabul has become a “proxy of India” and is conspiring against Pakistan along with New Delhi and the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
“The rulers of Kabul, who are now sitting in India’s lap and conspiring against Pakistan, were once under our protection, hiding on our land,” he claimed as he declared Islamabad “can no longer afford to have relations with Kabul like in the past”.
The unprovoked remarks came after Taliban’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi’s recent six-day visit to India, even though the trip was officially centred on trade and bilateral relations.
“All Afghans residing on Pakistani soil must return to their homeland; they now have their own government/caliphate in Kabul… Our land and resources belong to 250 million Pakistanis… Self-respecting nations do not thrive on foreign land and resources… Now they have their own government [or] caliphate in Kabul. It has been five years since the Islamic revolution … they must live with Pakistan as neighbours,” he said.
Asif claimed Pakistan was ready and capable of defending itself in the face of further aggression from Kabul and said that despite Islamabad’s “efforts and sacrifices over five years”, there has been no positive response from Kabul.
“Pakistan issued 836 protest notes to the Afghan side and another 13 demarches,” he said.
Afghanistan-Pakistan Conflict
Kabul has said that Pakistan launched air strikes inside Afghanistan late on Friday, killing at least 8 people and breaking a ceasefire that had brought two days of calm to the border. The Afghanistan Cricket Board said three players who were in the region for a tournament were killed in the attack.
It also said it was withdrawing from the upcoming Tri-Nation T20I Series involving Pakistan, scheduled for next month.
The 48-hour truce paused nearly a week of bloody border clashes that killed dozens of troops and civilians on both sides.
In Pakistan, a senior security official told news agency AFP that forces had “conducted precision aerial strikes” in Afghan border areas targeting the Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group, a local faction linked to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)—the Pakistani Taliban.
Islamabad said that the same group had been involved in a suicide bombing and gun attack at a military camp in the North Waziristan district that borders Afghanistan, which left seven Pakistani paramilitary troops dead.
