Pak does not want ‘armed conflict’ with Afghanistan, says Khawaja

Islamabad: Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said that Islamabad does not want an “armed conflict” with Afghanistan, days after Pakistani air force jets carried out air strikes against terrorists in the border regions of Khost and Paktika inside the neighbouring country.

“Force is the last resort. We do not want to have an armed conflict with Afghanistan,” he said, warning that Pakistan could block the corridor it provided to Afghanistan for trade with India.

“A message needed to be sent that this [cross-border terrorism] has grown too much,” Asif said in an interview with Voice of America published on Wednesday, according to the Dawn newspaper.

Pakistan wanted to convey to the Afghan interim government in Kabul that “we cannot continue like this,” he said while commenting on the Pakistani airstrikes.

On Monday, Pakistan carried out intelligence-based operations targeting Tehreek-e-Taliban’s Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group which is responsible for the March 16 attack in Mir Ali, North Waziristan and multiple other terrorist attacks in the country. Islamabad’s action came following a deadly attack on Pakistani forces which resulted in the killing of seven soldiers including a Lieutenant Colonel and a Captain.

Asif warned that Islamabad could block the corridor it provided to Afghanistan for trade with India. The defence minister asserted that Pakistan had the right to stop facilitating Kabul if it failed to curb anti-Pakistan terrorists operating on Afghan soil.

“If Afghanistan treats us like an enemy, then why should we give them a trade corridor?” he asked. Pakistan has repeatedly called on the Afghan interim government to prevent its soil from being used against Pakistan by TTP and other militant organisations a claim denied by Kabul.

Recalling the February 2023 visit to Kabul by a high-level delegation led by him, Asif said he had told the Taliban ministers to not let banned militant Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) past “favours” tie Kabul’s hands.

“If they [TTP] have done you a favour and you’re grateful to them, then control them. Don’t let them start a war with us while living in your country, and you become their ally,” Voice of America quoted him as saying.

“If they can harm us, then we’ll be forced to [retaliate],” he said, expressing hope that Afghanistan would rein in the TTP. Asif alleged that Kabul was letting the TTP operate against Pakistan in a bid to prevent its members from joining the militant Islamic State group’s local chapter, known as the IS-Khorasan chapter.