The head of snake: Ending Taliban’s double game

Ali Zafar THERE is a ritual that plays out with clockwork precision in the corridors of Kabul. Pakistan acts against a terrorist hideout. Within hours, the Taliban regime issues a statement invoking the same images of suffering and alleging civilian casualties. Every time a terrorist hideout is targeted, they repeat the same propaganda while ignoring the devastating toll of terrorism inflicted upon Pakistan. It is a strategy as cynical as it is transparent: weaponize humanitarian language, neutralize a neighbour’s right to self-defence, repeat. The world is not fooled. And Pakistan’s patience, long the diplomatic asset its leaders offered as proof of good faith, has ceased to be a virtue. It has become a liability. Three months of restraint. A graveyard of results: Pakistan has shown enormous restraint for the past three months while suffering numerous terrorist attacks from Afghan soil, entirely unabated. This was not passivity born of weakness. It was a strategic choice, a deliberate preference for cooperation over confrontation and dialogue over unila-teral action. Intelligence was shared, border mechanisms were proposed and public appeals were issued at every diplomatic level. Pakistan wanted the Taliban regime to take action against these terrorists. It was not an un-reasonable request. It was the bare minimum demanded by international norms of good neighbourliness. The response from Kabul was a masterclass in evasion: denial, distraction and propaganda. Not a single terrorist sanctuary was dismantled. Not one handler was held accountable. The attacks did not slow. They accelerated. “Diplomacy cannot succeed if one party’s foundational security concerns are dismissed, every single time, with a theatrical performance of victimhood.” The ledger of blood: Abstract geopolitical arguments often obscure what is, at its core, a story of human lives ended prematurely and violently. Over the last three months, attacks continued unabated from Afghan soil. On June 8, 2026