In what could lead to a major breakthrough in Pakistan-Afghanistan tensions, Islamabad has agreed to resume diplomatic negotiations with Kabul following a renewed push by Turkish officials to salvage the stalled peace process.
According to reports, the Pakistani delegation was initially scheduled to return home today (Thursday) after previous rounds of talks failed to yield meaningful progress. However, Turkish hosts, who reports said are keen to ensure concrete outcomes, requested the delegation to remain in Istanbul, prompting Pakistan to reconsider its position.
Reports quoted diplomatic sources as saying that Afghan officials had also initiated contact at the diplomatic level, paving the way for the resumption of bilateral discussions.
The Pakistani delegation, which had been preparing to depart, will now extend its stay in Istanbul to give peace another chance. The talks will focus on Pakistan’s longstanding demand that Afghanistan take clear, verifiable and effective action against terrorist groups operating from its soil.
While the development marks a cautious step forward in efforts to stabilise relations between the two neighboring countries, Pakistan has reiterated its stance that Afghan territory must not be used for terror activities on this side of the border.
It may be noted that Defence Minister Khawaja Asif had on Wednesday also issued a stern warning to the Afghan Taliban.
In a post on X, the defence minister said that Pakistan had engaged in talks at the request of brotherly countries in an effort to give peace a chance, but “venomous statements” by certain Afghan officials clearly reflected the devious and splintered mindset of the Taliban regime.
“Let me assure them that Pakistan does not require to employ even a fraction of its full arsenal to completely obliterate the Taliban regime and push them back to the caves for hiding. If they wish so, the repeat of the scenes of their rout at Tora Bora with their tails between the legs would surely be a spectacle to watch for the people of the region,” he said.
The defence minister further said that it was sad to see how the Taliban regime was “blindly pushing Afghanistan into yet another conflict just to retain its usurped rule and maintain the war economy that sustains them”.
“Despite fully knowing their inherent limitations and hollowness of their war cries, they are beating the war drums to maintain their crumbling facade. If the Afghan Taliban regime is madly hellbent upon ruining Afghanistan and its innocent people once again then so be it.”
On the Afghan narrative of “graveyard of empires”, Asif said Pakistan certainly didn’t claim to be an empire but Afghanistan was “definitely a graveyard, surely for its own people”.
“Never a graveyard of empires but certainly a playground of empires you have been throughout history,” he said, adding that the warmongers amongst the Taliban regime, “who have vested interests in the continuation of instability” in the region, should know that they have probably misread Pakistan’s resolve and courage.
“If the Taliban regime wants to fight us, the world will INSHAALLAH see that their threats are only performative circus!”
He went on to say that Pakistanis have “borne Afghanistan’s treachery and mockery for too long, but no more”.
“Any terrorist attack or any suicide bombing inside Pakistan shall give you the bitter taste of such misadventures. Be rest assured and test our resolve and capabilities, if you wish so, at your own peril and doom,” he concluded.
Asif had posted the statement hours after Tarar said 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.
“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 had said.