Afghanistan’s former National Directorate of Security (NDS) chief, Rahmatullah Nabil, wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) account in response to remarks by Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, saying that Asif should “not be taken seriously” and questioning which of his statements can actually be trusted.
Nabil wrote that the same person who today claims Afghanistan’s wars were political and “proxy wars,” and that Pakistan joined them to serve the interests of major powers, had earlier told the United States after the Taliban came to power: “Power is with you, but God is with us.”
According to Nabil, if everything was merely political, then why were religious slogans used? And if religion truly played a role, why are all issues today reduced to so-called “political mistakes”?
He added that claiming the Soviet presence in Afghanistan was not an “occupation” does nothing to ease the pain of Afghans. In his words, war, destruction, and displacement cannot be erased through legal terminology, as Afghans did not recognize occupation through law, but through graveyards, displacement, and destroyed cities and villages.
Nabil also wrote that the claim “we were victims too” represents only half of the truth. He argued that Pakistan was not merely a victim, but rather made deliberate decisions, chose its path, and for years benefited from war, ideology, and the use of religion as a tool.
The former intelligence chief said changes to school curricula and the construction of war and jihad narratives were not accidental, adding that Pakistan’s current army chief, General Asim Munir, is also a product of the same military generation whose mindset was shaped during the eras of General Akhtar Abdul Rahman and General Zia-ul-Haq.
He stressed that the reality is this: Pakistan, from its inception, has been a project of regional proxy politics and ideology, not a country built on an honest and genuine national narrative.
