Army spokesman warns Taliban it cannot absorb Pakistan's response

The military's spokesman has said the Afghan Taliban cannot absorb the "punishment" Pakistan is able to impose, and that Pakistani forces are prepared to counter threats from Afghan soil including drones.

Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, director general of Inter-Services Public Relations, made the remarks in an interview with Reuters in Rawalpindi on October 30, reported by Geo News and Minute Mirror.

"Whatever they want to send, they can; they may try. We have the capability to take them on," the ISPR DG said. "They don't have, I think, the capability to then absorb the punishment that we can put on them."

He said any drone capability held by the Afghan Taliban is not indigenous and is being supplied by "their sponsors". India is the "biggest terror sponsor" in the context of threats facing Pakistan, he said, and alleged that the Afghan Taliban and groups such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan were acting as Indian proxies. Minute Mirror reported he also named the Balochistan Liberation Army and accused the Taliban of using hired fighters.

Geo News reported him saying that Afghan citizens and even personnel of the Taliban administration had been found among groups involved in attacks inside Pakistan. According to Minute Mirror, he named Noor Wali Mehsud, Bashir Zeb and Gul Bahadur as commanders being sheltered in Afghanistan.

"We only ask you that don't support terrorism inside Pakistan. Stop harbouring the terrorist leaders," he said. "If you do it, then there will be a cost. And we are capable of imposing that cost and we have a clear strategy how to impose that cost."

He said Islamabad is not seeking Afghanistan's isolation and wants the international community and regional countries to engage Kabul and press it to behave like a state. "What Afghanistan is producing right now, it has only two products: terrorism and drugs," he said, and called on world powers to push the Taliban to stop narcotics cultivation and production. He rejected allegations that Pakistan hosts or coordinates anti-Taliban elements.

On the army's own preparations, he said the force is adapting to non-contact warfare, including drones and cyber technology, and declined to disclose how artificial intelligence is used to identify targets. "We are using all sorts of technologies. We are a technology-savvy army," he said.

Referring to Pakistan's previous conflict with India, he said New Delhi had sent "dozens and dozens" of sophisticated drones which Pakistan countered. "We turned them into dust everywhere," he said.

Separately, Minute Mirror reported that Pakistan's permanent mission to the United Nations raised the issue at the Third Committee of the General Assembly. Counsellor Muhammad Jawad Ajmal, speaking during an interactive dialogue with the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, said terrorism remained one of Afghanistan's most pressing challenges.

Ties between Islamabad and Kabul have been strained over militant activity and border security, with Pakistan repeatedly asking Afghan authorities to prevent their territory from being used against it.