‘India wants to keep Pakistan busy on…’: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif's fresh claim
Khawaja Asif has repeatedly accused Afghanistan of acting "proxy for India" and warned of a “two-front war” during tensions with Kabul.
Pakistan's defence minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, on Saturday made a fresh claim of Islamabad's “two-front war” as the country recently agreed on a ceasefire with Afghanistan after a brief conflict last month.
Amid deteriorating ties with Kabul, Khawaja Asif alleged that India wanted to keep Islamabad busy and engaged on the eastern and western fronts. He was referring to the recent clashes with Afghanistan on the country's western border and the May conflict with India on the eastern border, during Operation Sindoor.
Asif has repeatedly accused Afghanistan of acting "proxy for India" and warned of a “two-front war” during tensions with Kabul.
Speaking of India, Khwaja Asif said Delhi has been "waging a proxy war against Pakistan since the Ashraf Ghani era" and that the evidence is widely accepted now.
Also Read: ‘Kabul is India’s proxy’: Pakistan's Khawaja Asif asks Afghans to return home as tensions escalate
"If necessary, we will present proof," he told Geo News, adding “India seeks to keep Pakistan preoccupied on two fronts: the eastern and western.”
On the recent ceasefire with Afghanistan, Asif expressed optimism that the mediation efforts by Qatar and Turkey will yield positive results.
Pakistan and Afghanistan has agreed to maintain a ceasefire following peace talks in Istanbul on Thursday, mediated by Qatar and Turkey, days after violent clashes erupted on the Afghan-Pak border last month. The clash coincided with Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi's visit to India.
Pak accuses Afghanistan of being India's proxy
Earlier this week, Asif repeated his claim that Afghanistan was acting as a proxy for India. He further said that the Taliban leadership was being manipulated by India.
“The people in Kabul pulling the strings and staging the puppet show are being controlled by Delhi,” he said, according to Dawn.
While speaking of the recent clashes with Kabul, he had also warned that India “could play dirty at the border” as he asserted that Islamabad is prepared for a “two-front war”.
Responding to a question about whether India might commit a "vile act" during last month's conflict, the Pakistani minister said, "Absolutely, you cannot rule it out. Absolutely, there is a possibility of this."
Pakistan's recent friction with Afghanistan comes months after Operation Sindoor in May, in which India retaliated to the April 22 Pahalgam attack, targeting terrorist and military infrastructures in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kahsmir (PoK).
