Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar said early on Wednesday that the latest round of talks between Islamabad and Kabul held in Istanbul, Turkey, “failed to bring about any workable solution.”
He added that Pakistan will continue taking all possible measures to protect its citizens from terrorism.
After days of fighting along the Pak-Afghan border and Islamabad’s strikes on Gul Bahadur group camps inside Afghanistan, both countries met in Doha. That meeting led to a temporary ceasefire and an agreement to reconvene in Istanbul to find lasting peace and stability. The second round began last week in the Turkish capital.
Update on Pakistan – Afghanistan Dialogue, Istanbul – October 2025
— Attaullah Tarar (@TararAttaullah) October 28, 2025
Ever since the assumption of control in Kabul, Pakistan has repeatedly engaged with the Afghan Taliban Regime regarding persistent cross border terrorism by Indian-abetted Fitna al Khwarij (TTP) and Indian proxy,…
In a tweet posted on X (formerly Twitter) Tarar wrote that Pakistan had repeatedly engaged with the Afghan Taliban over “persistent cross-border terrorism” by Indian-abetted Fitna-al-Khawarij and Indian proxy Fitna-al-Hindustan.
Fitna-al-Khawarij refers to terrorists from the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), while Balochistan-based groups are labelled Fitna-al-Hindustan to highlight India’s alleged role in terrorism and destabilisation across Pakistan.
“The Afghan Taliban regime have been asked time and again to fulfil their written commitments to Pakistan and to the international community in the Doha Agreement. However, Pakistan’s fervent efforts proved futile due to the Afghan Taliban regime’s unabated support to anti-Pakistan terrorists,” Tarar said.
“Since the Taliban regime bears no responsibility towards the people of Afghanistan and thrives on a war economy, it desires to drag and mire the Afghan people into a needless war,” he said.
The minister said Pakistan had always desired and sacrificed for the peace and prosperity of the Afghan people.
“In the same spirit, Pakistan has held countless rounds of talks and parleys with the Afghan Taliban regime but, unfortunately, they have always remained indifferent to Pakistan’s losses. Sadly, after sustaining such huge losses of men and material for four long years, Pakistan’s patience has run its course,” he stated.
He explained that to “give peace a chance” and at the request of Qatar and Turkiye, Pakistan engaged with the Afghan Taliban first in Doha and then in Istanbul. The focus was a single-point agenda: to ensure the Afghan Taliban stop terrorist organisations from using Afghan soil as a “training-cum-logistics base and jump off point for terrorist activities in Pakistan.”
Tarar thanked Qatar and Turkiye for facilitating the talks and for their efforts to convince Kabul to “desist from the use of terror proxies as leverage against Pakistan.” But he reiterated that the Afghan side kept moving away from the main issue.
“Over the last four days of dialogue, the Afghan Taliban delegation repeatedly agreed to Pakistan’s logical and legitimate demand for credible and decisive action against [militant] organisations and terrorists. Sufficient and irrefutable evidence was provided by Pakistan which was acknowledged by Afghan Taliban and the hosts, however, regrettably, the Afghan side gave no assurance,” Tarar said.
“The Afghan side kept deviating from the core issue, evading the key point upon which the dialogue process was initiated. Instead of accepting any responsibility, the Afghan Taliban resorted to blame game, deflection and ruses. The dialogue thus failed to bring about any workable solution,” he wrote.
Tarar again thanked the governments of Qatar, Turkiye, and other friendly states for their efforts to “bring about a peaceful solution to the problem of terrorism, for the prosperity and security of the two countries and the region at large.”
“The security of its people is of paramount importance to Pakistan. We will continue to take all possible measures necessary to protect our people from the menace of terrorism and assure them that the government of Pakistan will continue to employ all the resources which are required in this regard to decimate the terrorists, their sanctuaries, their abetters and supporters,” he said.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif also said Afghan negotiators “changed their minds four or five times” after calling Kabul. He also said that Delhi was pulling their strings and using Afghans to wage a proxy war against Pakistan. When asked what Pakistan would do if Afghanistan “attacks Islamabad”, Asif replied, “If Afghanistan even looks at Islamabad, we will gouge their eyes out.”