Afghanistan fighting India’s proxy war, Taliban's decisions being sponsored by Delhi: Pak Defence Minister

Kabul is fighting India’s “proxy war,” Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said after days of intense border fighting with the Afghan Taliban.

All of the Taliban's decisions are being sponsored by New Delhi, Khawaja Asif said, before adding that the Afghan Minister of External Affairs spent quite a few days in India. “Muttaqi sahib [Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan Amir Khan Muttaqi] has been sitting there [in India] for a week and has now returned. What plan he has brought, so, I think that Kabul is currently fighting Delhi’s proxy war.”

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While he expressed confidence that the 48-hour ceasefire between the two neighbours will not be broken, there were more veiled remarks against India. “I have my doubts that this [ceasefire] will hold because the Taliban, as I have told you, right now all their decisions are being sponsored by Delhi,” Asif reportedly told a television channel on Wednesday night.

Pakistan worried about Afghan-India ties improving?

Muttaqi, who landed in New Delhi on Thursday on a six-day trip, is the first senior Taliban minister to visit India after the group seized power four years ago. India has not yet recognised the Taliban setup. Muttaqi also pitched for India and Afghanistan to join hands to remove obstacles for the development of the Chabahar port in Iran in view of the Trump administration bringing it under sanctions.

Muttaqi said Kabul will soon send its diplomats to New Delhi. "The foreign minister (S Jaishankar) said you can send diplomats to New Delhi now. When we go back, we will select people and send them," he said. In his meeting with Muttaqi, Jaishankar announced the upgrading of India's technical mission in Kabul to the status of an embassy. Asked if the Taliban regime will appoint an ambassador, Muttaqi said: "We will now send diplomats and gradually the contacts will increase." Till now, the Afghan missions in India have officials who were largely appointed by the previous Ashraf Ghani government.

Afghan-Pakistan border clashes

While Muttaqi was in India, the Pakistani Air Force carried out attacks on Kabul, allegedly targeting terror leadership in the city. The Taliban soon retaliated, targeting Pakistani army posts across the Durand Line, which escalated over the days until the two-day ceasefire came into force.

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Muttaqi has said Pakistan had a hand in an attack in the border areas and that it was yet to be ascertained how the explosion took place in Kabul. "Just as we want good relations with India, we want good ties with Pakistan. But these relations can only be built from both sides; it can't be done by one side," he had said.

Dozens of people have been killed in airstrikes and ground fighting between South Asian neighbours Pakistan and Afghanistan this month—their deadliest confrontation since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021. The truce followed appeals from major regional powers, as the violence threatened to destabilise a region where groups, including the Islamic State and al-Qaida, are trying to resurface. There were no reports of overnight fighting. Key border crossings remained closed on Thursday.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan welcomed the ceasefire and said it was still assessing the number of casualties. It said the heaviest toll was in the south on Wednesday.