‘Will completely OBLITERATE them if…’: Pakistan minister issues CHILLING threat to Taliban after Istanbul talks collapse, says will push Taliban back to…

Pakistan-Taliban war: Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has issued a warning to Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban after peace talks between Islamabad and Kabul broke down in Turkey’s Istanbul as the sides failed to reach a consensus.

Why Khawaja Asif threatened Taliban?

Reacting to the Afghan Taliban’s threat to attack Pakistan, Khawaja Asif warned that Pakistan will “completely obliterate” the Taliban regime, asserting that Islamabad wouldn’t even need to even a fraction of its arsenal to achieve that objective. The Pakistani defence minister also threatened to push them back into the Tora Bora caves, referring to the assault when scores of Taliban fighters were killed by US forces during an operation in Tora Bora mountains.

“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,” Asif wrote on X.

“As far as the narrative of *graveyard of empires*, Pakistan certainly doesn’t claim it to be an empire but Afghanistan is 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 added.

Taliban pushing Afghanistan into another conflict?

Asif claimed that Pakistan gave “peace a chance” at the request of brotherly countries who were persistently being beseeched by Taliban Regime, but “venomous statements by certain Afghan officials clearly reflect the devious and splintered mindset of Taliban regime.”

The Pakistan minister accused the Taliban of pushing Afghanistan into yet another conflict to retain their “usurped rule” and maintain their “war economy”, adding that war mongers in the Taliban regime have vested interests in the perpetuating instability in the region, warning that “If the Taliban regime wants to fight us, the world will INSHAALLAH see that their threats are only performative circus! We have borne your 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,” Asif warned.

Why Istanbul peace talks failed?

The defence minister’s chilling remarks came after the second round of peace talks between Afghanistan and Pakistan in Istanbul collapsed as the Taliban side reportedly “failed” to provide assurances on Islamabad’s key demands, preventing any “workable solution”, according to Pakistan’s Federal Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ataullah Tarar.

In a post on X on Tuesday, Tarar stated that despite agreeing to Pakistan’s demand to take “decisive action” against terrorist and militant organisations in the country, the Afghan side offered no “concrete assurances” and “resorted to blame games, deflection and ruses”, adding that the safety of Pakistan’s citizens remains the government’s top priority and vowed to use every available resource to eliminate terrorists, their networks, and their supporters.

“We will continue to take all possible measures necessary to protect our people from the menace of terrorism and ensure that the Government of Pakistan will employ all resources required to decimate the terrorists,” Tarar said, as per the The Express Tribune.

Notably, ahead of the Istanbul talks, Khawaja Asif had warned that Islamabad would fight an “open war” with the Afghan Taliban if talks with Kabul do not yield desirable results.