Former Defence Minister of Pakistan Khawaja Mohammad Asif said that Islamabad will resort to force to defend its territory if there is evidence that the attacks against the country are being coordinated in Afghanistan.
In an exclusive interview with Afghanistan International, Asif emphasised that Pakistan would use force if the Taliban does not fulfil its commitments.
The former defence minister of Pakistan had previously accused the Afghan Taliban of not fulfilling their commitments based on the Doha Agreement and allowing the use of Afghan soil against other countries.
Khawaja Mohammad Asif told Afghanistan International on Friday that after his recent trip to Kabul on February 22 and despite requests from the Afghan Taliban, the attacks of the Tareek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have increased across Pakistan.
He added that most of these attacks had been carried out from inside the territory of Afghanistan and the Taliban must accept the responsibility and fulfil their commitments. He warned that otherwise, Pakistan will have the right to defend its territory.
Asif also mentioned the recent fatwa attributed to Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada in which the Taliban leader has called the war in Pakistan forbidden and said that this fatwa could be "influential".
A member of the Taliban's Supreme Court and head of the group's Dar al-Ifta issued a fatwa on Thursday against the war in Pakistan, saying that the Taliban had pledged in the Doha Agreement not to wage "jihad" abroad. He implied that the leader of the Taliban, too, considered the war in Pakistan illegitimate.
Asif related the reason for the effectiveness of this fatwa to the "several decades of relations" between both the groups and their "joint leadership in the past" and said that "Afghan and Pakistani Taliban have fought many joint wars over several decades”.
