By The South Asia Times

ISLAMABAD  — Four days of talks between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban collapsed in stalemate on Wednesday after Kabul’s delegation failed to provide concrete assurances to act against militant groups that Islamabad says are using Afghan soil to plan and launch attacks on Pakistan, Pakistan’s information minister said.

In a detailed post on X, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Pakistan entered the dialogue — held in Istanbul at the request of Qatar and Türkiye, following earlier engagement in Doha — with a single-point agenda: to secure credible, decisive action by the Afghan Taliban regime to prevent the use of Afghanistan as a training, logistics and launch base for terrorist organisations that Islamabad labels Fitna al Khwarij (TTP) and Fitna al Hindustan (BLA).

“Ever since the assumption of control in Kabul, Pakistan has repeatedly engaged with the Afghan Taliban Regime regarding persistent cross border terrorism,” Tarar wrote, arguing that written commitments in the Doha agreement have not been honoured. According to his post, Pakistan presented “sufficient and irrefutable evidence” of militant activity and of the use of Afghan territory by those groups — evidence he said was acknowledged by both the Afghan delegation and the host countries. Despite that acknowledgement, the Afghan side “gave no assurances,” Tarar said, adding that the Taliban repeatedly deviated from the core issue and resorted to “blame game, deflection and ruses.”

Tarar framed the failed talks in the context of four years of mounting Pakistani losses in men and materiel, saying Islamabad’s “patience has run its course.” He thanked Qatar and Türkiye for facilitating the talks and for their efforts to persuade the Taliban regime to desist from using terror proxies “as leverage against Pakistan.” But with no workable solution emerging from Istanbul, Tarar warned Islamabad would continue to take “all possible measures necessary to protect our people” and vowed to employ the resources needed “to decimate the terrorists, their sanctuaries, their abetters and supporters.”

The tone hardened further after the talks when Defence Minister Khawaja Asif posted a stark warning on X. Asif accused “venomous statements by certain Afghan officials” of reflecting “the devious and splintered mindset of [the] Taliban regime” and asserted that Pakistan “does not require to employ even a fraction of its full arsenal” to obliterate the regime if provoked. He evoked the rout at Tora Bora and warned that any terrorist attack or suicide bombing inside Pakistan “shall give you the bitter taste of such misadventures,” telling the Taliban to “test our resolve and capabilities, if you wish so, at your own peril and doom.”

Together, the two posts portray a diplomatic process that collapsed under mutual distrust and competing narratives. Islamabad insists it sought only to convert the ceasefire and diplomatic overtures secured earlier this month into enforceable action to end cross-border terrorism; Pakistan’s leaders say they provided evidence and sought concrete guarantees. Kabul, according to Pakistani statements, repeatedly pushed back, arguing limits to its control over all militant actors — a contention Pakistani officials view as evasive.

The Istanbul round — convened after mediation efforts in Doha and presented by Islamabad as a last-ditch effort to translate goodwill into results — saw Pakistan leaning on regional interlocutors to press the Taliban to act. Tarar’s message thanked Qatar and Türkiye for their “sincerest efforts,” but made clear those efforts did not yield the assurances Pakistan demanded.

Analysts and diplomats are likely to warn that the breakdown elevates regional tensions at a time when both countries and their neighbours are sensitive to any escalation. Islamabad’s public messaging, alternating between appeals for accountability and explicit military warnings, suggests Pakistan will keep diplomatic and international avenues open while signalling that it reserves the right to respond forcefully if attacks continue.

For now, the Istanbul talks have closed without a pact, leaving a fraught border and fragile regional calm. Islamabad’s message was unequivocal: after years of what it calls unaddressed cross-border terrorism and heavy domestic costs, Pakistan has run out of patience — and will act to defend its people.