Pakistan Accuses Taliban of Turning Afghanistan into Indian 'Colony'

(MENAFN) Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has accused the Taliban administration of transforming Afghanistan into an Indian puppet state, as Islamabad's military strikes on its western neighbor pushed bilateral relations to their most dangerous breaking point in decades.

In a Friday post on X — published hours after Pakistan bombed major Afghan cities including the capital Kabul — Asif declared both nations locked in active armed conflict, framing the military escalation as the inevitable consequence of Taliban betrayal.

"After the withdrawal of NATO forces, it was expected that there would be peace in Afghanistan and that the Taliban would focus on the interests of the Afghan people and peace in the region," Asif said. "However, the Taliban turned Afghanistan into a colony of India. They gathered all the terrorists of the world in Afghanistan and began exporting terrorism."

Asif insisted Islamabad had exhausted every diplomatic avenue before resorting to force. "Pakistan made every effort to keep the situation normal through direct means and through friendly countries. It engaged in full-fledged diplomacy. But the Taliban became a proxy for India," he alleged.

"Our cup of patience has overflowed. Now it is open war between us and you (Afghanistan)," Asif added.

New Delhi has yet to issue a formal response to the latest accusations. India has consistently and categorically denied prior Pakistani allegations that it has actively stoked tensions between Islamabad and Kabul.

The accusations carry a long and bitter history. Following the August 2021 bus bombing that killed 13 people — including nine Chinese nationals — Islamabad pointed the finger at India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), and Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS).

Diplomatic fault lines deepened further last October, when an explosion rocked Kabul just hours before a scheduled meeting between Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar. Local media drew direct connections between the blast and deteriorating Pakistan-Afghanistan ties. The incident coincided with India and Afghanistan formally agreeing to restore diplomatic relations — four years after the Taliban seized power.

As the military confrontation intensified on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called on both nations to step back from the brink. "In the month of RAMADAN, Afghanistan and Pakistan should settle differences through neighborly DIALOGUE," he wrote in a post on X.

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