SIALKOT: Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif Sunday said that Pakistan is a peace-loving country and keen on establishing cordial relations with its neighboring counties on the basis of equality for maintaining peace in the region.
Talking to APP at his residence, the minister said that our top priority is establishing peace in the country as well as in the region in larger interest of people of the region. But this flexibility and the efforts in this regard should not be underestimated, he added.
Answering a question, the minister said that all-out efforts were being made to develop healthy and durable relations with Afghanistan, Iran, India and Russia as well as other countries of the region.
To another question, the foreign minister said that high-ups of Pakistan and Indian governments are in touch to handle harassment incidents of Pakistani High Commission.
He hoped that efforts in this regard would bear fruit and relationship between the two neighboring countries would become normal.
Pakistan and Russia are enjoying highly cordial relations and Russia is extending cooperation and support to Pakistan in different fields, the foreign minister said, adding that relations between these two countries would be further strengthened with passage of time and both the countries would become closer.
“We want to see Afghanistan as a peaceful and stable country because Pakistan would benefit the most from a peaceful Afghanistan,” he added.
The minister said Pakistan was making hectic efforts for purging the country of menace of terrorism to make it a safe place for its people, adding that Pakistan had rendered great scarifies in the form of precious human lives and suffered economic losses in the war against terrorism.
He said the world should recognize the scarifies rendered by Pakistan in war against terrorism and ignoring the scarifies would be unjust. No country in the world has done more than Pakistan to check the menace of terrorism, he said.
The foreign minister said that megaproject, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), would play an instrumental role in bringing revolutionary changes in the country. He said that the economic stability and prosperity in the country would not only benefit the people of Pakistan but of the region at large.
Foreign Minister: Pakistan wants cordial relations with neighbors
Foreign Minister: Pakistan wants cordial relations with neighbors
Security forces kill four militants in Pakistan’s volatile southwest, military says
- Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by land area bordering Iran and Afghanistan, has long been the site of a low-level insurgency
- The Balochistan government has recently established a threat assessment center to strengthen early warning, prevent ‘terrorism’ incidents
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces gunned down four militants in an intelligence-based operation in the southwestern Balochistan province, the military said on Tuesday.
The operation was conducted in Balochistan’s Kalat district on reports about the presence of militants, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani military’s media wing.
The “Indian-sponsored militants” were killed in an exchange of fire during the operation, while weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the deceased, who remained actively involved in numerous militant activities.
“Sanitization operations are being conducted to eliminate any other Indian-sponsored terrorist found in the area,” the ISPR said in a statement.
There was no immediate response from New Delhi to the statement.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by land area bordering Iran and Afghanistan, has long been the site of a low-level insurgency involving Baloch separatist groups, including the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF).
Pakistan accuses India of supporting these separatist militant groups and describes them as “Fitna Al-Hindustan.” New Delhi denies the allegation.
The government in Balochistan has also established a state-of-the-art threat assessment center to strengthen early warning and prevention against “terrorism” incidents, a senior official said this week.
“Information that was once scattered is now shared and acted upon in time, allowing the state to move from reacting after incidents to preventing them before they occur,” Balochistan Additional Chief Secretary Hamza Shafqaat wrote on X.
The development follows a steep rise in militancy-related deaths in Pakistan in 2025. According to statistics released by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) last month, combat-related deaths in 2025 rose 73 percent to 3,387.
These included 2,115 militants, 664 security forces personnel, 580 civilians and 28 members of pro-government peace committees, the think tank said.
