A stark message

FOREIGN Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif on Wednesday delivered a stark message to Afghanistan in the backdrop of renewed incidents of terrorism in Pakistan, which are linked to Kabul. Speaking in the National Assembly, he warned that if Kabul failed to stop harbouring terrorists, Pakistan would respond in the same way it had against India last year. The Defence Minister also struck a cautiously optimistic note regarding domestic political alignment, saying the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government, which had previously been uncooperative, was now on-board. The straight forward statement of the Defence Minister is a clear manifestation that Pakistan will not change its existing Afghan policy till satisfactory resolution of the issue of terrorism. This is understandable as Pakistan tried its best for years to convince the Taliban regime to abandon its patronage of the TTP terrorists that have become a major cause of terrorism in the country. However, the Afghan Taliban did not attach much importance to the genuine concerns of Pakistan, shutting prospects for a negotiated solution of the problem. The stubborn attitude of the Taliban forced Pakistan to take action against terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan and as a result of the targeted campaign a reduction in terrorist incidents was noticed during the last few weeks. Pakistan paused the operation after the Kabul government relayed repeated signals to cooperate in dealing with the menace of cross-border terrorism. There were initial reports that the talks, hosted by China, made progress but the recent incidents of terrorism in KP indicate the Afghan Taliban and their proxy TTP misused the truce to regroup and resume the same old strategy of carrying out terrorist attacks in Pakistan. There is credible information that recent attacks, such as the May 2026 assault on the Fateh Khel police post which killed 15, are linked to militants housed in Afghanistan. It is strange that some elements in Pakistan speak the language of Kabul as