Wednesday, 29 October, 2025 | 6 Jamadiul Awwal, 1447
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Rs 20.00 | Vol XVI No 112 | 8 Pages Lahore Edition
TALKS WITH KABUL FALTER AS AFGHAN SIDE ‘BACKPEDALS REPEATEDLY’, SAYS KH ASIF
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Profit
DEFENCE MINISTER BLAMES KABUL’S INTERFERENCE, DELHI’S INFLUENCE FOR STALLED PEACE PROCESS
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ISLAMABAD/ISTANBUL staff report
EFENCE Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif on Tuesday revealed that an agreement with Afghanistan was “within reach” during the second round of Istanbul talks but was derailed several times after the Afghan negotiators “backpedaled” following instructions from Kabul. Speaking on a TV programme, the defence minister said the Afghan side had withdrawn from an almostconcluded understanding “four or five times,” each time after consulting authorities in Kabul. “Whenever we got close to an agreement — either in the last four days or last week — when negotiators reported to Kabul, there was intervention and the agreement was withdrawn,” Asif said. “I believe the negotiations were sabotaged.” Asif, who praised the Afghan delegation for engaging “hard but sincerely,” alleged that “the people in Kabul pulling the strings and staging the puppet show are being controlled by Delhi.” He claimed India was using Afghan territory to conduct a proxy war against Pakistan. “The junta there has elements that have visited India and their temples. India is compensating for its defeat on the western border through Kabul. It wants to engage in a low-intensity war with Pakistan — and for this, they are using
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REITERATES ‘KABUL DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR TERRORISM,’ WARNING ANY ACT OF AGGRESSION FROM ACROSS BORDER WOULD BE MET WITH A ‘RESPONSE 50 TIMES STRONGER’
Afghanistan,” he said. The defence minister further asserted that the Afghan Taliban regime “lacked authority” and had been “penetrated by Indian influence,” describing Kabul’s actions as an extension of Delhi’s regional strategy. When asked about recent Afghan
threats of possible retaliation in the event of renewed hostilities, Asif responded firmly: “If Afghanistan even looks at Islamabad, we will gouge their eyes out. They can use terrorists — they already are. For the past four years, they have been using terrorists against us.”
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Pakistan slams ‘fabricated’ report on CIA–Mossad talks, Gaza troop deployment ISLAMABAD
staff report
The Ministry of Information on Tuesday categorically rejected as “completely fabricated and baseless” an Indian media report claiming that Pakistan’s leadership had held secret meetings with the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Israel’s Mossad to discuss sending Pakistani troops to Gaza under a socalled peace force arrangement. The ministry stressed that Pakistan has neither held any such meetings nor agreed to any plan to deploy troops to Gaza, reaffirming Islamabad’s long-standing and principled stance of non-recognition of Israel and unwavering support for the Palestinian cause. “The news item is completely fabricated. No such meetings, understandings, or ‘deals’ ever took
place between Pakistan’s leadership, the CIA, or Mossad,” the ministry said in a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter). “Pakistan does not recognize Israel, has no diplomatic or military engagement with it, and maintains a clear, principled stance in support of Palestinian self-determination.” The statement came hours after India’s First Post, citing CNNNews18, alleged that Pakistan was “preparing to deploy up to 20,000 troops to Gaza” following purported secret meetings between Chief of Army Staff Gen. Asim Munir and senior officials from the CIA and Mossad. The report further claimed that Pakistani troops would “neutralize remaining Hamas elements” and act as a “buffer force” between Israel and Gaza’s armed factions under Western instructions—in exchange for economic incentives and debt relief from the United States and its allies.