Pakistan's defence minister threatened on Wednesday to "obliterate" the ruling Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan, a dramatic escalation of rhetoric after the collapse of talks towards a lasting peace between the South Asian nations.

Axar.az, citing Reuters, truce negotiations concluded in Istanbul without a "workable solution", Pakistan's information minister said early on Wednesday, in a blow for peace in the region after this month's deadly clashes.

Pakistan reacted with fury to the failure of the talks, which sources said ended with a disagreement over militant groups allegedly using Afghanistan as a base to attack its security forces along their border.

"Pakistan does not require to employ even a fraction of its full arsenal to completely obliterate the Taliban regime and push them back to the caves for hiding," Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said in a post on X. The Taliban and Afghanistan's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the remarks.