ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will not change its policy toward Afghanistan unless the Afghan Taliban first abandon their “guerrilla mindset,” State Minister Talal Chaudhry said on Thursday.
“Their [Taliban leadership’s] attitude towards us is quite different from what it is with the rest of the world,” the state minister told local media.
The statement underscores Islamabad’s call for the Taliban to adopt a conventional governing approach as a prerequisite for any future policy adjustments.
Pakistan has witnessed a rise in cross-border terror attacks since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021.
Islamabad has repeatedly urged the Afghan Taliban regime to take action against terrorist groups operating from Afghan territory.
However, the Taliban regime failed to take any action against terror groups and prevent Afghan soil from being used against Pakistan.
On Sunday, Pakistan carried out intelligence-based precision airstrikes targeting seven terrorist camps along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in response to recent suicide attacks.
The strikes were conducted in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar, Paktika and Khost provinces and targeted facilities linked to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan terror group and its affiliates, including Daesh-Khorasan.
Afghan Taliban’s support for terror groups
Security sources said more than 100 terrorists were killed in the precision strikes.
“A state, as they call themselves, but they have not yet emerged from a guerrilla mindset. We also tried to change their behaviour through dialogue,” the state minister said.
The minister said that through the practical measures now being implemented, Pakistan aims to influence the Afghan Taliban’s conduct and encourage them to act as a responsible state authority.
He observed that the Taliban’s approach toward Pakistan appears markedly different.
According to the minister, the group’s supreme leader, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, issues multiple fatwas in a single day when matters related to women arise.
“However, when there are attacks on Pakistan’s mosques, Imambargahs, marketplaces, innocent women, or even schoolchildren travelling by bus, there is complete silence,” he emphasised.
He added that dialogue remains the preferred and ideal path to resolving the issue.
Nevertheless, he warned that if the Taliban continue to operate with what he described as a “guerrilla mindset,” Pakistan will maintain its current policy trajectory.
