Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s latest outburst against Afghanistan and India once again exposes Islamabad’s long history of denial, deceit, and deflection. After a suicide blast ripped through Islamabad and killed 12 people on Tuesday, Asif was quick to threaten war with Kabul and accuse India of stirring violence through Afghan soil. But behind these loud warnings and conspiracy theories lies a much deeper truth Pakistan is now being devoured by the very terror networks it once bred, trained, and sheltered. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Islamabad once used as a pawn in its regional games, has turned its guns on its own masters. And instead of facing that reality, Pakistan’s establishment is manufacturing external enemies to hide its spectacular internal collapse.
Whenever Pakistan is hit by terrorism, its leaders instinctively point fingers outward either toward India or Afghanistan. This time, Khawaja Asif’s reaction followed the same predictable script. Without evidence, he accused the Afghan Taliban of harbouring terrorists responsible for the Islamabad attack and even claimed that India was using Afghanistan as a base to “wage aggression” against Pakistan. He went so far as to say that some Taliban factions were “linked with India” and that Pakistan was ready to “pay back in the same coin.”
But the facts tell a different story. The suicide bombing in Islamabad was claimed by the TTP a group that was born, nurtured, and protected by Pakistan’s own intelligence agencies for years. During the 2000s and 2010s, Islamabad viewed the Taliban and TTP as tools to control Afghanistan and to exert pressure on India in Kashmir. The Pakistani establishment allowed them to grow in tribal areas, armed them, and provided safe havens. The ISI’s “strategic depth” policy to use religious militancy as a foreign policy weapon has now backfired.
The TTP, once seen as a loyal asset, has grown into a Frankenstein’s monster. It no longer takes orders from Rawalpindi but has found new motivation in targeting the Pakistani state itself. Every time Pakistan blames Afghanistan or India, it only exposes its own unwillingness to confront the truth that decades of state-sponsored radicalization have turned Pakistan into a breeding ground for terrorism beyond its own control.
Pakistan’s defence minister claimed that most of the terrorists killed in recent operations were Afghans and that 2,500–3,000 militants had entered Pakistan in the past year. These figures, conveniently thrown around without evidence, serve only one purpose to divert public anger away from the establishment. What Asif and his colleagues will never admit is that the TTP’s strength comes not from foreign lands, but from Pakistan’s own madrasa networks, radical clerics, and political patronage.
The Pakistani state has long played a double game cracking down on some terror groups while secretly protecting others that served its interests. Groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed were openly glorified as “freedom fighters” when they attacked India. The Afghan Taliban were given sanctuary for years even as the world condemned their actions. When the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021, Pakistan celebrated it as a “strategic victory.” Yet, within two years, that so-called victory has turned into humiliation. The Taliban refuses to take orders from Islamabad, the TTP refuses to stay silent, and Pakistan is stuck between its own lies.
This is why Asif’s recent warning of “war” against Afghanistan sounds hollow. Pakistan can bomb villages across the Durand Line and carry out airstrikes, but it cannot destroy the ideology it cultivated at home. The madrasa networks, extremist clerics, and hate preachers that the state promoted for decades have ensured that terrorism is no longer an imported problem it is a homegrown disease.
In a desperate attempt to control the narrative, Pakistan has started dragging India into its internal chaos. Asif claimed that “some groups in Afghanistan have their strings pulled from India,” and that recent attacks were part of an “Indian aggression” using Afghan soil. These baseless allegations are not new. For years, Pakistan’s military and political elite have portrayed India as the eternal villain to justify their own failures.
However, the facts expose their propaganda. India’s engagement with Afghanistan today is humanitarian and developmental providing food aid, scholarships, infrastructure projects, and trade support. Even the Taliban leadership has acknowledged India as a “close friend” and expressed interest in stronger diplomatic ties. Pakistan’s real fear is not Indian “infiltration,” but India’s growing goodwill in Afghanistan. The same Taliban government that Islamabad once thought would remain its loyal puppet is now choosing to engage with New Delhi on its own terms.
By blaming India for its internal chaos, Pakistan hopes to distract its citizens from economic collapse, rising inflation, and a broken security apparatus. Each suicide attack in Islamabad or Peshawar chips away at the myth of Pakistan’s “strategic depth.” The Pakistani public, already suffering under political instability and poverty, is beginning to see through this old tactic of blaming India for everything.
Khawaja Asif’s claim that “Pakistan is in a state of war” is not just rhetoric it is also a political tool. The Pakistan Army thrives on perpetual conflict. By declaring an invisible war against India or Afghanistan, the military establishment keeps its dominance over politics and public discourse intact. Each terror attack becomes an excuse to expand military powers, silence critics, and divert media focus from economic and governance failures.
But this tactic is wearing thin. Pakistan’s economy is in ruins, with inflation soaring and foreign reserves drying up. Civil unrest and political chaos have deepened under the current establishment. The people are beginning to question why, despite having one of the world’s largest armies and billions in foreign aid, Pakistan remains unsafe and unstable. Blaming Afghanistan or India may have worked in the past, but today’s Pakistanis are paying the price for decades of deception.
Even within the region, Islamabad’s credibility is collapsing. The Taliban regime, despite being internationally isolated, no longer trusts Pakistan. Other Muslim nations like Qatar and Turkey, which once mediated between Islamabad and Kabul, now view Pakistan’s constant blame-shifting as a barrier to peace. The more Pakistan threatens war, the more it reveals its weakness and insecurity.
Pakistan’s tragedy today is entirely self-inflicted. The very groups that its intelligence agencies once described as “strategic assets” have now become existential threats. The TTP and other militant outfits are not Indian agents or Afghan proxies they are the children of Pakistan’s own policy of jihad and denial.
For decades, Pakistan believed it could control fire without getting burned. It used religion to manipulate its people, trained extremists for foreign adventures, and called it national security. Now that fire is consuming its own cities. Each bomb blast, each suicide attack, and each assassination is a reminder that the monster has come home.
Instead of introspection, Khawaja Asif and his colleagues are resorting to the same old lies blaming India, threatening Kabul, and pretending to be victims. But the truth is simple: Pakistan’s terror problem is not born in New Delhi or Kabul; it is born in Rawalpindi. The snakes it raised in the name of jihad are now biting it back, and no amount of propaganda can hide that reality.
Pakistan’s current crisis is not just about terrorism it is about accountability. The country’s establishment, which built its power on false narratives and militant proxies, is now trapped in the very chaos it created. Blaming India or Afghanistan will not change the fact that the TTP and its offshoots are Pakistani creations.
If Islamabad truly wants peace, it must confront its own past dismantle terror networks, end the madrasa-industrial complex, and stop using religion as a weapon of policy. Until then, every bomb in Islamabad will serve as a reminder that Pakistan’s greatest enemy is not across its borders but within its own borders. The snakes it nurtured are no longer under its control and they are biting harder than ever.
