“Pakistan’s Monster Turns on Its Master: Khawaja Asif Labels Taliban a Terrorist Regime After Decades of Islamabad’s Own Sponsorship of Terror”

In a fiery escalation of rhetoric that underscores the deepening rift between Islamabad and Kabul, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif on Friday launched a blistering attack on Afghanistan’s Taliban regime, declaring that “the era of old relations is over.”

Speaking through a strongly worded post on social media, Asif demanded that all Afghans residing in Pakistan must return to their homeland, arguing that they now have their “own government and caliphate in Kabul.”

He added, “Our land and resources belong to 250 million Pakistanis,” in a message laced with nationalistic fervor and unmistakable frustration.

The statement came at a time when tensions between the two neighbors had reached one of their worst points in recent history.

A fragile 48-hour ceasefire along the volatile Durand Line had just expired, though reports later suggested that both sides were attempting to extend the truce through talks in Doha.

Yet, within hours, the Taliban accused Pakistan of launching fresh airstrikes in Afghanistan’s Paktika province, prompting a Taliban official to declare that the “truce has been broken.”

Asif’s remarks reflect a hardening of Islamabad’s position toward Kabul, as he announced that Pakistan could no longer afford to maintain the same relationship with Afghanistan as in the past.

He claimed that Pakistan had shown “patience for years” but had received no cooperation from the Afghan side.

The minister further disclosed that Islamabad had issued 836 protest notes and 13 demarches to Kabul over continued cross-border terror attacks, but to no avail. “There will be no more appeals or delegations.

Wherever the source of terrorism lies, it will pay a heavy price,” Asif warned, hinting at possible military retaliation.

But what makes this episode particularly ironic — and even tragic — is the dramatic reversal of roles. For decades, Pakistan’s military establishment had been accused of nurturing and supporting the Taliban, using them as a proxy to gain strategic depth in Afghanistan and to counter India’s influence in the region.

Now, that very creation has turned into a thorn in Islamabad’s side, with the Taliban accused of sheltering Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants who have launched repeated deadly attacks inside Pakistan.

Adding another layer of contradiction, Khawaja Asif himself recently admitted publicly that Pakistan had been aiding and abetting terrorism against India — often under Western patronage — for more than three decades.

He acknowledged that the country had served as a tool in the geopolitical games of powerful nations, particularly the United States, during and after the Soviet-Afghan war.

Today, as Pakistan once again leans toward Washington for diplomatic and financial support, it finds itself entangled in the very web of extremism it once helped spin.

In his latest tirade, Asif went as far as accusing the Taliban government of acting as a “proxy of India,” alleging that Kabul was “conspiring against Pakistan in alliance with New Delhi and the TTP.”

He added bitterly, “The rulers of Kabul, who are now sitting in India’s lap, were once under our protection, hiding on our land.”

Asif also cited staggering numbers to highlight Pakistan’s internal turmoil since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021: 10,347 terror attacks and 3,844 lives lost, including civilians and security personnel.

Despite these figures, critics argue that Pakistan’s policies of nurturing militancy and exporting jihadist ideology for decades have boomeranged, leaving the country economically crippled, diplomatically isolated, and socially fractured.

Today, as Pakistan denounces the Taliban as a “terrorist state,” the irony is impossible to ignore.

A nation once celebrated as a “frontline ally” in the global war on terror is now facing terror bred from its own backyard, with the same militant ideology consuming its borders and threatening its stability.

What Khawaja Asif portrays as Pakistan’s self-defensive posture is, in reality, the reckoning of a long and perilous policy of duplicity — where a state that once exported terror is now engulfed by it.

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