Pakistani government wants to 'create anarchy' in Afghanistan, claims Hamid Karzai

Hamid Karzai has claimed that the Pakistani government wants to promote "anarchy and weakness" in Afghanistan to ensure the country is "downtrodden".

Speaking to Sky's Yalda Hakim, the former Afghan president condemned the bombing of his country by Islamabad.

Fighting began in late February when Pakistan began targeting Afghanistan ​with airstrikes that they claim targeted militant strongholds.

The conflict, which the United Nations estimates has displaced more than 100,000 people, intensified this week when Kabul said 400 people had been killed when a missile hit a hospital that treats drug addicts.

Mr Karzai - who led Afghanistan between 2002 and 2014 after the Taliban were forced from power - said that he had heard the "horrific sound" of the bombing himself, that his house had shaken and that the area around it had filled with smoke and dust.

The strike was, he said, an "extremely unfortunate event" in the history of the relationship between the two countries.

"The government of Pakistan has not been able to live with any Afghan government," he told Sky News.

"They didn't do this well with the government and the monarchist regime in Afghanistan and then the Republic and then, subsequently other governments and then the Republic again, during my time in office, I went there 20 times to seek a better relationship."

He claimed that Pakistan's current government is again repeating the same attempt to cripple Kabul.

Mr Karzai said: "The unfortunate fact is that the government of Pakistan does not wish to have a sensible, reasonable, civilised relationship with Afghanistan.

"They rely on creating anarchy and weakness and a downtrodden Afghanistan these years, in their interest, which is terribly wrong, which I hope they will change their minds and look for a more stable and civilised relationship with Afghanistan."

Read more:
Afghanistan claims 400 killed by Pakistan in hospital strike
Af-Pak conflict displaces more than 100,000 people

Mr Karzai added that he advised the Pakistani leadership to conduct itself in a "civilised way" with Afghanistan.

"Please stop the approaches that did not work in the past for decades and it may not work into the future," he said.

Pakistan has said its strikes "precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure, including technical equipment storage and ammunition storage of Afghan Taliban" and other militants in Kabul and Nangarhar.

It added that the facilities were being used against innocent Pakistani civilians, and also said "false and misleading" claims that the site was struck were intended to stir sentiment and cover "illegitimate support for cross-border terrorism".

(c) Sky News 2026: Pakistani government wants to 'create anarchy' in Afghanistan, claims Hamid Karzai