Terrorists’ hideouts inside Afghanistan to be targeted: Khawaja Asif

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Defence Khawaja Asif on Thursday said that Islamabad had warned the Afghan Taliban it would strike terrorist hideouts inside Afghanistan if the de facto rulers in Kabul were unable to rein in anti-Pakistan militants.

In an exclusive interview with the Voice of America, Asif said in his late-February visit to Afghanistan he reminded the Taliban leaders to live up to their cross-border security commitments forbidding terrorists from using the Afghan soil to plan and conduct attacks on Pakistan or Islamabad will take action.

“If that is not done, at some point we’ll have to ... resort to some measures, which will definitely — wherever [terrorists] are, their sanctuaries on Afghan soil — we’ll have to hit them,” he said. “We’ll have to hit them because we cannot tolerate this situation for long.”

Since the Afghan Taliban’s August 2021 takeover of Kabul, Pakistan has seen a resurgence in terror attacks led by Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, or the TTP, an ideological offshoot and ally of the Afghan Taliban.

According to the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies, the country recorded at least 262 terror attacks in 2022, of which the TTP was responsible for at least 89. Last November, the group ended a unilateral ceasefire after talks with Islamabad broke down. Since then, the country has seen near-daily lethal attacks, most of them targeting members of the military and police.

Pakistan says TTP leadership is operating from Afghanistan after Pakistani military operations in the border areas a few years ago forced it to flee along with thousands of fighters.

When asked if he believed the Afghan Taliban’s assertion that the TTP is not operating from the Afghan soil, Asif said, “They still operate from their soil.”

Asif claimed Taliban leadership “responded very well” to the recent warning. He said he believes that the Afghan Taliban are trying to “disentangle” from the TTP, after receiving support from the group to fight the US-led coalition troops.

Last April, Pakistan struck what it claimed was a TTP outpost in eastern Afghanistan. However, a large number of civilian deaths in the operation led to a strong reaction by the Afghan Taliban.

Asif said he hopes the security threat to his country will not escalate to a point where “we have to do something which will be not to the liking of our neighbours and our brothers in Kabul,” whom he said Pakistan “wished well” in their efforts to establish their writ across Afghanistan.

But Asif also criticized former prime minister Imran Khan and the previous military and intelligence leadership for allowing thousands of Taliban fighters and their families to return to Pakistan in a bid to continue negotiations with the militants. Intelligence reports say that allowed the terrorists to regroup.

Pakistani government and security officials allege TTP fighters attacking Pakistan are using arms and equipment left behind by US troops at the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan. State Department Counselor Derek Chollet told VOA in February that US officials do not have an independent assessment of that claim. Asif said the TTP was using light weapons, assault rifles, ammunition, night vision goggles and sniper rifles that US troops left behind. When asked if Pakistan had shared any evidence with Washington, Asif questioned how that would help Islamabad as “Washington left ... that sort of hardware on foreign soil because they couldn’t carry it.”

Alluding to the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan after two decades of fighting US and coalition troops, Asif questioned Washington’s ability to fight terrorism successfully or the need to request its help to fight terrorism in Pakistan. “I do not see any logic in that,” he said. “My personal view is that we can take care of this ... menace ourselves.”

Asif said the economic crisis is the biggest threat for the country right now and the military is looking at curtailing its expenses. However, he refused to specify where the cuts would be made. He also did not elaborate on where the finances would come from if Pakistan decided to conduct a new military operation.

Asif believes the military will uphold its latest pledge of staying out of politics. “I am 100% sure that the next election will ... be [without] any interference,” he said. Despite facing a trifecta of crises—political instability, an economic meltdown and rising terrorism, Asif said he has “absolutely no doubt” that Pakistan’s defence is stable. When asked whether this point had been raised with the Americans, Asif said: “What is the use of talking to Washington? They left that sort of hardware on foreign soil because they couldn’t carry it.” The interviewer pointed out that the US State Department’s response to Pakistan’s assertion was that they did not have “an independent assessment”. She also asked whether Islamabad needed the help of the US in fighting terrorism in Pakistan.

“I do not see any logic in that,” the minister said. “My personal view is that we can take care of this […] menace ourselves,” Asif said, giving the examples of Zarb-i-Azb and Raddul Fassad.

He also termed the resurgence in terrorism in the country to be a “grave mistake” by the previous PTI government.