‘Don’t go back like this’: Pakistan minister’s throat-cut gesture to Afghan journalist backfires – video
Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Asif has faced criticism on social media over a threat-like gesture he made towards an Afghan woman journalist who questioned him about Pakistan’s ties with the Taliban and its response to the treatment of Afghan women.The incident took place on the sidelines of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in New York.The video clearly shows that journalist asked Asif what message Pakistan had for the Taliban over their policies toward Afghan women and why Islamabad had not challenged those policies when the Taliban were considered friends.“What’s your message to the Taliban now? To change their policy towards Afghan women? Why at the beginning, Pakistan didn’t teach them that,” the journalist asked, according to a video of the exchange shared on social media.Asif interrupted her without answering the question and pointed towards her attire.“Don’t go back like this over there. They will… otherwise they will..,” he said, while making a hand gesture across his neck.The gesture drew strong condemnation online, with several social media users saying it appeared to imply that the journalist could be killed if she returned to Afghanistan. Users also criticised Asif and the men accompanying him for laughing after his remarks.A user on X wrote: “This is an utterly disgraceful way for a senior government minister to respond to a woman asking a serious question.”“A woman asking about the suffering of Afghan women deserved an answer not intimidation, mockery, and laughter,” he added.The journalist’s question centred on the Taliban’s policies towards Afghan women and Pakistan’s position on them. Social media users said the response and the gesture were inappropriate and appeared to carry a threat of violence.The incident comes amid fresh tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, with Islamabad carrying out aerial and drone strikes inside Afghanistan early Thursday.The Taliban also confirmed to news agency Reuters that 28 “fighters” were killed after crossing from Pakistan into eastern Afghanistan. The ruling-authority in Kabul also added that most of them were former Afghan security personnel.Pakistan called the strikes as “precision attacks” on 10 locations. Federal information minister Atauallah Tarar said the operation was carried out in response to drones launched from Afghanistan a day earlier.According to Dawn, Tarar said in a post on X that the strikes targeted locations allegedly used for launching and storing drones. He described the operation as “deliberate, precise, calibrated and proportionate and strictly limited to identified military objectives directly linked to the attempted attacks against Pakistan”.Afghanistan has warned Pakistan of “dire consequences” over the strikes, describing them as blatant aggression.“In this criminal aggression, four of our fellow Afghan compatriots have been martyred. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly condemns these blind and cowardly attacks in the harshest terms, considering them a flagrant violation of all principles, a blatant aggression, and a crime,” Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said.Cross-border hostilities between the two neighbours have continued in recent weeks, with Pakistan carrying out military action, including aerial strikes, inside Afghanistan.
