Khawaja Asif accuses Kabul of acting as India’s tool, warns of 50 times stronger reply

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has accused Kabul of acting as a tool for Delhi, warning that any attack on Islamabad would draw a befitting response, 50 times stronger.

Appearing on Geo News’ primetime show Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada ke Saath, Asif delivered a blistering critique of Kabul’s leadership, accusing it of dancing to India’s tune. “The people in Kabul pulling the strings and staging the puppet show are being controlled by Delhi,” he said, alleging that India was using Afghanistan to compensate for its defeat on their western border, the Dawn reported.

Asif said recent negotiations between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Turkiye collapsed after four or five reversals by the Afghan side. “Whenever we got close to an agreement when negotiators reported to Kabul, there was intervention, and the agreement was withdrawn,” he told the channel.

He praised the Afghan delegation for hard negotiation but accused Kabul’s power brokers of sabotaging progress under India’s influence. “India wants to engage in a low-intensity war with Pakistan. To achieve this, they are using Kabul,” he said.

Talks between the two sides — brokered by Turkiye and Qatar — ended Monday without a breakthrough, though mediators said continued engagement was significant. The deadlock reportedly centered on Islamabad’s demand for verifiable action against the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Pakistan says operates freely from Afghan soil.

Responding to Afghan threats of retaliation, Asif issued a stark warning. “If Afghanistan even looks at Islamabad, we will gouge their eyes out,” he said. “There should be no doubt that Kabul is responsible for the terrorism in Pakistan.”

Earlier, Asif had cautioned that failure of the talks could lead to an all-out war with Afghanistan.

TALKS IN TURKIYE TO RESOLVE CROSS-BORDER TENSIONS

Officials from Pakistan and Afghanistan were still trying to find common ground to settle their dispute over cross-border military and other issues despite three days of talks held in Turkiye.

Talks began on Saturday and continued through Monday, but without any final agreement. Quoting officials, the Dawn newspaper reported that a final agreement still remained elusive.

Sources familiar with the closed-door discussions said that while “most of the points had been mutually agreed between the two sides”, the mechanism for verifiable action against terrorist groups operating from Afghan territory continued to be the main sticking point, PTI reported.

Dozens of soldiers, civilians and terrorists were killed in clashes between earlier this month, creating a war-like situation; however, peace was restored temporarily on October 19 after the two sides held talks — facilitated by Qatar and Turkiye — in Doha.

– Ends

With inputs from PTI

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