Pakistan army chief Asim Munir warns Afghanistan to act against militants, says proxies using Afghan soil “will be raised to dust” amid fresh border strikes.
Pakistan Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir issued a stark warning to Afghanistan on Saturday, telling the Taliban regime to choose between “peace and chaos” as border hostilities escalate following a series of cross-border strikes. Speaking at a passing-out parade at the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul, Munir blamed militants operating from Afghan soil for recent attacks inside Pakistan and vowed that any proxy groups staging assaults would be met with a decisive response.
The remarks come after a fresh round of violence that briefly halted following mediation by Qatar and Saudi Arabia, but hostilities resumed when Pakistan carried out strikes that reportedly killed civilians in eastern Afghan districts — an operation Kabul said hit residential areas and claimed ten lives, including three cricketers. Those civilian casualties have deepened diplomatic strain and complicated fragile ceasefire terms.
Islamabad says the strikes targeted Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and other militants who use Afghan territory to plan attacks, while Afghan officials deny their soil is being used for cross-border militancy and have warned of retaliation. Reuters and regional wires have noted that Pakistan’s ceasefire arrangements were with the Afghan Taliban leadership rather than non-state Islamist groups, a distinction that has limited the scope of negotiated pauses.
Analysts say Munir’s public rhetoric serves multiple aims: to pressure the Taliban into policing militant groups, to signal deterrence to domestic audiences, and to shape diplomatic leverage ahead of Doha talks aimed at de-escalation. The immediate watchpoints are enforcement on the ground, humanitarian access for affected Afghan districts, and whether Qatar-led negotiations can restore a sustainable truce or merely produce short pauses that collapse under continued militant activity.
