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Tensions have escalated between Pakistan and the Taliban, with Pakistan’s defense minister issuing a stern warning on Wednesday. In a bold statement, he threatened to “obliterate” the Taliban, which currently governs Afghanistan, following the collapse of peace negotiations between the two parties.
The talks, held in Istanbul, Turkey, concluded without reaching a “workable solution,” as confirmed by Pakistan’s Information Minister, Attaullah Tarar. This breakdown comes in the wake of recent deadly clashes along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, marking the most severe violence in the region since the Taliban seized control of Kabul in 2021.
The negotiations hit a stalemate primarily due to disagreements over accusations that terrorist groups are using Afghan territory as a base to launch attacks against Pakistani security forces.
In a strong statement on social media platform X, Pakistan’s Defense Minister, Khawaja Asif, declared, “Pakistan does not need to deploy even a fraction of its full arsenal to completely obliterate the Taliban regime and drive them back to hiding in caves.”
Amidst the tension, images have emerged of an Afghan Taliban fighter stationed on a tank near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in Spin Boldak, Kandahar Province, following recent exchanges of fire between the two sides on October 15, 2025. (Reuters)
The two countries agreed to a ceasefire brokered in Doha, Qatar, on October 19, but they could not find common ground in a second round of talks mediated by Turkey and Qatar in Istanbul, according to Reuters.
Both countries blamed the other for the talks falling apart.
“The Afghan side kept deviating from the core issue … on which the dialogue process was initiated,” Pakistan’s information minister said on Wednesday, accusing the Taliban of engaging in deflection, ruses and playing a “blame game.”
“The dialogue thus failed to bring about any workable solution,” he said.
Taliban security personnel walk past a damaged car in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province on October 16, 2025, a day after the cross-border clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Getty Images)
A Pakistani security source told Reuters that the Taliban had been unwilling to agree to reining in the Pakistani Taliban, a separate terror group that Pakistan says operates without consequences from inside Afghanistan.
An Afghan source familiar with the talks told the outlet that negotiations ended after “tense exchanges” on the matter, noting that Afghanistan claimed it had no control over the Pakistani Taliban.
The Pakistani Taliban launched attacks against the Pakistani military in recent weeks.
The clashes began earlier this month after Pakistani air strikes targeted the head of the Pakistani Taliban in Kabul and other locations.
A Taliban security personnel stands guard along a road near the Ghulam Khan zero-point border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan in Gurbuz district in the southeast of Khost province on October 20, 2025. (Getty Images)
The Taliban retaliated with attacks on Pakistani military posts along the length of the 1,600-mile border that remains closed.
Pakistan’s defense minister said on Saturday that he believed Afghanistan sought peace but that the failure to reach an agreement in Istanbul would mean “open war.”
And despite a ceasefire between Pakistan and the Taliban, clashes over the weekend resulted in the killings of five Pakistani soldiers and 25 Pakistani Taliban members near the border with Afghanistan.