ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Sunday said that Afghan Taliban have stretched the ceasefire through talks instead of tackling terrorism.
The Third Round of Pakistan-Afghanistan talks, mediated by the friendly states of Turkiye and Qatar, concluded in Istanbul on November 7, 2025.
Pakistan expresses deep gratitude for the sincere efforts made by Turkiye and Qatar to mediate the differences between Pakistan and Afghanistan regarding the core issue of terrorism originating from Afghan soil against Pakistan.
Since the Taliban regime came to power in Afghanistan four years ago, there has been a sharp increase in terrorist attacks targeting Pakistan. Throughout this period, despite suffering military and civilian casualties, Pakistan exercised maximum restraint and refrained from retaliatory actions.
Pakistan hoped that over time, the Taliban regime would take control of these attacks and implement concrete actions against the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other terrorist elements on Afghan soil.
During these years, Pakistan also sought to positively engage with Afghanistan by offering bilateral trade concessions and humanitarian assistance. Pakistan’s intention has always been to constructively engage with Afghanistan to help it become a stable, peaceful, and prosperous country, at peace both internally and with its neighbours.
However, despite Pakistan’s positive gestures—such as trade concessions, humanitarian aid, facilitating educational and medical visas, and encouraging the international community to engage with the Taliban regime for regional peace and socio-economic development—the response from the Taliban has been limited to hollow promises and inaction.
Instead of fulfilling Pakistan’s key expectation of preventing Afghan territory from being used for attacks against Pakistan, the Taliban regime has consistently evaded taking meaningful and verifiable actions. They have attempted to obscure the main issue of terrorism by diverting attention to relatively irrelevant and hypothetical matters. By doing so, they try to create a narrative that absolves them of their commitments and responsibilities towards both the international community and their own people.
Pakistan’s response in October 2025 to the ongoing attacks originating from Afghanistan demonstrated its determination to leave no stone unturned in safeguarding its territory and its citizens.
The TTP and the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) are declared enemies of the State of Pakistan. Those who harbour, support, or finance them are not considered friends of Pakistan or its people. Pakistan is resolute in taking all possible actions to protect its interests and its citizens.
At the same time, Pakistan is a strong advocate for peace and diplomacy, maintaining that the use of force should always be the last resort. In the spirit of giving peace and diplomacy every possible chance, and in response to the sincere advice of Turkiye and Qatar, Pakistan agreed to engage in Pak-Afghan peace talks mediated by these friendly nations.
During the first round of talks in Doha, both sides reached an understanding on certain principles of cooperation and responsibility, leading to Pakistan agreeing to a temporary ceasefire.
The second round in Istanbul aimed to devise an implementation mechanism for the measures agreed upon in the first round. However, representatives of the Taliban regime avoided taking any actionable steps and tried to back out of their commitments. They also attempted to create a hostile environment through accusatory and provocative statements in the media. The Pakistani side remained firm on its core demand for concrete and verifiable actions against the terrorist elements present in Afghanistan and the establishment of an effective monitoring mechanism to curb their activities.
In the third round, Pakistan once again approached the talks constructively, focusing on establishing an effective monitoring mechanism. However, the Afghan side attempted to divert attention from the core issue of terrorism and expanded the scope of engagement by introducing hypothetical allegations and unfounded claims.
Anyone following the talks under the mediation of Turkiye and Qatar could easily see that the Taliban regime seemed more interested in prolonging the temporary ceasefire without taking real and verifiable actions against the TTP and BLA elements on Afghan soil. Instead of addressing Pakistan’s primary concern, the Afghan regime used the talks to launch unfounded accusations against Pakistan, prolonging discussions and engaging in futile arguments.
