ISLAMABAD:

Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar revealed on Saturday that Islamabad held back from striking terrorist sanctuaries inside Afghanistan during a planned cleanup operation after a direct intervention by Qatar's leadership.

Dar said Islamabad was on the verge of launching a kinetic action that "would have surely taught them a lesson", but ultimately chose to pull back in favour of diplomacy at the request of the friendly Gulf nation.

Speaking at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he said Afghanistan's rulers had misread Islamabad's restraint as incapacity, warning that Pakistan possessed "ample kinetic capabilities" but would not prefer "to invade a brotherly country".

"The situation was possibly leading to that stage when this issue began. Qatar is a country whose foreign ministry was

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