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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan urged Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban government Monday to stop militants from using Afghan territory to launch attacks inside Pakistan, renewing a warning that the same armed groups could eventually threaten the Taliban\u2019s own rule.<\/p>\n
Tensions between the neighbors have escalated amid repeated border clashes and Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan, deepening a longstanding dispute over militant activity. The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan said in September that it had documented more than 1,100 civilian deaths and injuries from cross-border violence in Afghanistan this year.<\/p>\n
In a speech at a think tank broadcast on Pakistani television, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said he had already delivered a warning once to Afghan Prime Minister Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund, during a visit to Kabul in July 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cI politely reminded him that if the Afghan authorities failed to take appropriate action against terrorist groups operating from their territory, the day would come when these very groups would threaten his government as well,\u201d Dar said. He gave no details of Afghanistan\u2019s response, but Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected Pakistan\u2019s accusations in a post on X, accusing Pakistani officials of undermining negotiations and prioritizing propaganda over solutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlaming Afghanistan for its own failures by Pakistani officials is no solution to any problem,\u201d Mujahid wrote.<\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s Information Ministry rejected Mujahid\u2019s remarks, saying on X that Islamabad remained committed to dialogue, but that progress required Kabul to fulfill its counterterrorism commitments and take verifiable action against militant sanctuaries and support networks.<\/p>\n
Pakistan frequently accuses Kabul of sheltering the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, as well as the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, and Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, an affiliate of the global extremist network. The TTP is separate from but closely allied with Afghanistan\u2019s ruling Taliban. Dar did not explain why he assumed that militants could turn against the Afghan Taliban.<\/p>\n
Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban government has repeatedly denied providing a safe haven for militants targeting Pakistan.<\/p>\n
Dar said Pakistan\u2019s diplomatic and economic overtures to Kabul had yielded no meaningful progress on its central security demand: action against militants operating from Afghan soil.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood neighborly relations are a two-way responsibility,\u201d he said. \u201cThey cannot mean silently absorbing one attack after another.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dar said he visited Kabul three times in 2025 as Pakistan sought to expand trade, upgraded diplomatic representation to the ambassadorial level, and pursued a railway linking Pakistan with Central Asia through Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
He said Pakistan wanted a stable and prosperous Afghanistan but could no longer ignore what he described as a continuing militant threat from across the border.<\/p>\n
\u201cAttacks inside Pakistan are planned, directed and launched from across the border,\u201d he said. \u201cTerrorists infiltrate through mountainous terrain, target our soldiers and civilians, and retreat to their sanctuaries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dar said Pakistan\u2019s military has completed nearly 95 percent of a fence along the border, more than 2,600 kilometers (1,600 miles) long, with Afghanistan. The fence was begun in 2017, after militants\u2019 cross-border attacks on Pakistani army posts.<\/p>\n
Dar described the TTP as one of Pakistan\u2019s gravest security threats, citing attacks on schools, mosques, markets, and security installations. He also accused the separatist BLA of targeting civilians, security personnel, and economic infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Pakistan says more than 2,800 militant attacks since January have killed or wounded about 3,000 people.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the same event as Dar on Monday, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar blamed the surge in violence on Afghanistan-based militants, including the TTP. Citing UN and independent assessments, Tarar said Afghanistan hosts more than 6,000 TTP fighters and more than 20,000 militants overall.<\/p>\n
He accused the TTP of using Afghan territory to recruit, train and plan attacks on Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n