Long-standing clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan escalated to a new level after Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif declared an “open war” on February 26. The conflict between the two countries has resulted in the deaths of many civilians and soldiers.

 

Speaking about the war, Malikzada noted that tensions between the two countries are not new: “This situation did not come out of nowhere. The Taliban are directly responsible for creating this environment by continuing to give shelter to terrorist organizations, which has long been a core source of instability in the region. Now they do to TTP. At the same time, Pakistan is equally responsible. For two decades, Pakistan itself supported global terrorist networks, including giving shelter to Taliban leadership during the Republic period. What we are seeing today is the long term result of that double game.”

 

‘PAKISTAN HAS SHIFTED DIRECTION’

 

Highlighting the geopolitical dimension of the war, Malikzada said: “The Middle East is on fire and many countries, including Saudi Arabia, are being hit by Iran. One thing revealed in this situation is how spineless ally Pakistan can be. Pakistan made promises to Saudi Arabia, presenting the Saudi-Pakistan SMDA as a strategic security guarantee. But when Saudi actually needed support, Pakistan offered nothing. The pact was marketed as a NATO-like arrangement, where aggression against one would be treated as aggression against both. Yet after the February 28 US-Israeli attack on Iran and Tehran’s retaliation across the Gulf, Pakistan has shown zero commitment of that kind. Instead, Islamabad is now hiding behind an Afghanistan front — a front it has itself helped intensify.”

 

He added that Pakistan has escalated cross-border attacks that have displaced more than 115,000 people in Afghanistan and is now using this conflict as a justification for its inaction elsewhere.

 

“Afghanistan has become the convenient battlefield through which Pakistan manages its broader strategic failures. This is not a conventional war between two legitimate states; it is the outcome of long term strategic irresponsibility. The Taliban created the conditions by hosting terrorist groups, and Pakistan is now exploiting that instability, that itself helped build over decades,” he said. 

 

‘BOMBING CIVILIAN AREAS IS UNACCEPTABLE’

 

Responding to Pakistan’s strike on a rehabilitation center, Malikzada said: “Many have claimed the targeted area was not a rehabilitation centre. That is completely false. There was a rehab centre there, and it was a well-known one. Anyone in Afghanistan who has had an addicted family member knows that place. My uncle was treated there twice, the last time in November last year. I also spoke with a pharmacist from Panjshir who lost his nephew in that centre. He had been admitted just a month ago. Yes, the rehab centre was located next to Camp Phoenix, a former US military base. But that does not change its civilian nature. It was converted during the Republic into a treatment centre for thousands of addicts. It existed before the Taliban and was not built by them.”

 

He emphasized that claims of Taliban presence cannot justify such attacks: “Even if there were claims of Taliban activity elsewhere in the camp, that does not justify striking an entire area without distinction. If Pakistan targeted the wider site knowing a civilian treatment facility existed there, that is either recklessness or deliberate disregard for civilian life. And our hatred for the Taliban should never become an excuse to normalize the killing of Afghanistan civilians.”

 

‘SILENCE COULD DEEPEN THE SCALE OF ATTACKS’

 

Malikzada warned that attacks on healthcare facilities constitute a crime: “Pakistan’s continued impunity has now reached a point where even health facilities are being targeted. When a state feels it will face no real consequences, escalation becomes inevitable. What we are seeing now is not accidental, it is the result of years of silence and selective accountability by international community.”

 

He added that global focus on the Iran–Israel–US war has once again pushed Afghanistan to the margins: “This neglect is dangerous. It sends a clear message that some lives can be ignored without consequence. If the international community continues to stay silent, it is not just failing Afghanistan, it is normalizing a standard where bombing hospitals and civilian centres can happen without accountability. That is a very dangerous precedent.”

 

‘THE AFGHAN PEOPLE ARE TRAPPED’

 

Malikzada concluded by stressing the dire situation of civilians: “The Taliban have created this crisis through their policies and actions and supporting terrorist groups, and now it is ordinary people who are paying the price with their lives. Inside Afghanistan, people cannot openly criticize the Taliban. Any dissent is suppressed, often violently. At the same time, hatred for the Taliban does not mean people support Pakistan bombing their country.

 

No person from Afghanistan wants to see their homes, families, and communities turned into targets. People are caught between repression from within and violence from outside. And in this equation, they are the ones suffering the most. Civilian areas must not be targeted. At the same time, international community must actively monitor, investigate, and hold violations accountable. Without accountability, massacres of people like those that happened yesterday will continue.”

 

MA / Berivan Kutlu