Responding to recent remarks by the Taliban’s defense minister, Pakistan’s defense minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, said the Taliban have continued a war against Pakistan since they seized power in Kabul in 2021.
In a post on X, Asif said Taliban have carried out attacks in Pakistani cities and blamed them for violence inside the country.
“They are already relentlessly and shamelessly hitting our cities,” Asif wrote on Sunday. “Unarmed citizens are being killed, mosques destroyed, worshippers massacred while praying.”
He said that although the Taliban claim to act in the name of Islam, their actions contradict the religion’s principles.
“They use the name of Islam but do not have traits of Muslims defined by the Koran,” he wrote.
Asif said the conflict had continued since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan.
“Their war against Pakistan is going on since they took over Kabul,” he wrote, asking what the group had in its arsenal “except killing noncombatant innocent civilians, including children.”
“We are fighting against a bunch of criminals who have nothing to do with our religion of peace,” he added.
His comments came after the Taliban defense minister, Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid, warned that the Taliban were prepared for a prolonged confrontation with Pakistan. In an interview with TOLONews, Mujahid said Taliban forces would continue fighting if Pakistan prolonged the conflict.
“If they fight us for 10 years, we will fight them for 10 years,” he said. “We are not afraid.”
Mujahid also warned that instability in Afghanistan could spread across the border.
“If Kabul becomes insecure, Islamabad will also become insecure. If Kabul is hit, Islamabad will be hit,” he said, adding that Pakistan should not assume it could destabilize Afghanistan without facing consequences at home.
In the same interview, Mujahid suggested Pakistan might have obtained support from the United States to destroy American military equipment left behind in Afghanistan after the US withdrawal in 2021.
He said it was possible Pakistan had received a “project” from Washington to eliminate American-made weapons remaining in Afghanistan, though he did not provide evidence to support the claim.
Tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban have escalated in recent weeks as clashes between Taliban forces and Pakistani troops have continued along parts of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
Pakistan has long accused the Taliban of allowing militants from Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, to operate from Afghan territory and launch attacks inside Pakistan. Taliban authorities deny the allegation and say Afghanistan’s soil is not used against other countries.
A United Nations monitoring report has previously said the TTP maintains thousands of fighters in Afghanistan.
