Khawaja Asif: Afghanistan Remains Main Source of Terror Threats

DID Press: Khawaja Asif has described Afghanistan as the primary source of terrorism affecting Pakistan, while revealing that Islamabad once proposed a multi-billion-rupee plan to relocate Pakistani militants inside Afghanistan.

Speaking in Pakistan’s National Assembly, Asif said Afghanistan had become the main origin of militant activity fueling insecurity in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. He stated that repeated efforts to engage with the Taliban failed because the group was unwilling to provide written commitments on security-related issues.

According to the defence minister, he personally traveled to Kabul twice alongside senior officials from Pakistan’s intelligence services and also participated in talks with Taliban representatives in Qatar and Türkiye. He claimed that while Taliban officials verbally agreed to various proposals, they declined to provide formal written guarantees.

Asif further disclosed that Pakistan had offered 10 billion Pakistani rupees to support the relocation of Pakistani militants to remote areas of Afghanistan. The proposal, he said, was ultimately abandoned because Islamabad could not secure assurances that the militants would not return to Pakistan.

The minister also criticized Pakistan’s past policies toward Afghanistan, particularly during the 1980s and the era of former president Pervez Musharraf. He argued that Pakistan became a battleground for proxy conflicts and continues to bear the long-term consequences of those decisions.

Calling for national unity on security issues, Asif urged lawmakers not to use terrorism and instability as tools of political competition and stressed the need for a collective response to security challenges in Balochistan and other border regions.

His remarks reflect growing tensions between Islamabad and the Taliban-led authorities in Afghanistan, amid persistent concerns over cross-border militancy and deteriorating trust between the two sides.