DND Report: “Pakistan will not allow Afghan soil to be used against its security under any circumstances. If the Afghan Taliban does not stop supporting Fitna al-Khawarij (TTP), Pakistan will uproot these terrorist bases in Afghanistan.”
Multiple sources within security circles said Pakistan’s position is unequivocal: wherever the terrorists and their facilitators are, they will be targeted—whether on this side of the border or the other. They said the Afghan Taliban regime should understand that Pakistan’s friendship is driven by a desire for peace, not by weakness. Whatever Pakistan says now, it will do so in the language of strength and with results, not as a diplomatic request.
Recent developments — including attacks on Pakistan, secret meetings with Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, and reports that 15,000 Indian security and intelligence officials were invited to Afghanistan — have caused a breakdown in relations. Islamabad now says the Afghan Taliban are openly hostile to Pakistan.
“ISKP overlaps with the Afghan Taliban and TTP, while Russia, Pakistan, and Iran remain the group’s primary targets”
Security sources blame the Taliban regime’s duplicitous attitude (TTA) and India’s negative role for regional instability. They say the Taliban’s withdrawal from negotiations in Doha and Istanbul represents blatant hypocrisy. Verbal claims to friendship and practical hostility, the sources argue, cannot coexist. Pakistan engaged in talks in Turkey with sincerity and patience to secure a clear, written agreement with Afghanistan on terrorism, but the Afghan Taliban backed out at the last moment.
According to the sources, Afghanistan under the Taliban has become a haven for terrorist groups such as Fitna al-Khawarij (TTP), al-Qaeda and ISIS-Khorasan. They claim more than 80 percent of recent terrorist attacks in Pakistan were planned from Afghan soil and that intelligence reports indicate terrorists receive systematic training, funding and facilitation in Afghanistan. In the past, the Afghan Taliban and ISIS reportedly demarcated areas of influence and coordinated at times. The main targets of ISIS and TTP in Iran and Syria have been Shia communities, and attacks on the Hazara community in both Pakistan and Afghanistan have been claimed by ISIS and TTP. Given ideological overlap, the sources say collaboration between these groups and elements within the Taliban cannot be ruled out.
The Taliban regime, the sources add, missed a historic opportunity in Doha and Istanbul to build relations with Pakistan on a new basis. Instead, it has chosen sympathy and friendship with terrorist groups.
India is again, they claim, a central actor behind the scenes — with an intelligence network in Kabul that is reportedly active and supporting Fitna al-Khawarij and other groups in operations against Pakistan. This behavior, the sources say, is part of a proxy war against Pakistan at India’s behest — but Pakistan has made it clear that the time for patience is over.
From the death of Ayman al-Zawahiri to the Moscow Concert attack, it confirms that Afghanistan is the nucleus of global terrorism
In the post-Taliban interim government era, the death of Ayman al-Zawahiri on July 31, 2022, in a drone strike conducted by the United States, and the recent video of an Afghan Taliban commander planning terror attacks in Pakistan, confirm that Afghan soil continues to harbor and nurture global terrorism. The strange silence of the Afghan government over these events raises doubts and is unwilling to leave the idea of using terrorism as diplomatic leverage. From the death of Ayman al-Zawahiri to the Moscow concert attack, evidence confirms that Afghanistan remains the nucleus of global terrorism.
U.S. media reported that the United States had “shared information with Russia about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow.” American intelligence officials had been gathering information for months suggesting that Daesh could launch a mass-casualty attack in Russia, U.S. officials confirmed to NBC News.
ISKP, with a stronghold in Afghanistan, is one of many brand names used by global terrorists. Thousands of foot soldiers from splinter groups of the Afghan Taliban and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) operate under the ISKP label to conduct attacks in Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan.
ISKP fighters claimed responsibility for the 2021 attacks outside Kabul airport that left at least 175 civilians and 13 U.S. soldiers dead and many others injured.
The group was also involved in the attack on a maternity ward in Kabul in May 2020 that killed 24 people, including women and infants. In November of the same year, ISKP attacked Kabul University, killing at least 22 teachers and students. It has been targeting the Hazara community (Shia Muslims) in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran since 2006—the same period when Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was formed, allegedly with financial and operational support from Indian intelligence agencies to wage terrorism against Pakistan.
In September 2022, ISKP claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing at the Russian Embassy in Kabul. Iran also blamed the group for two separate attacks on the Shah Cheragh shrine in southern Shiraz, which killed at least 14 people and injured more than 40.
ISKP overlaps with the Afghan Taliban and TTP, while Russia, Pakistan, and Iran remain the group’s primary targets. International terrorism watchdogs indicate that ISKP has significantly strengthened its position in Afghanistan, turning the country once again into a breeding ground for global terrorism, reminiscent of the early 1990s. Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, and global counterterrorism bodies have repeatedly urged the Afghan interim government to take decisive action against terrorist groups operating from its soil. Kabul continues to deny the presence of such groups, insisting that no terrorists are using Afghanistan to launch cross-border attacks. Yet, the network’s reach has now extended as far as Moscow.
Several videos that surfaced on social media confirmed that the Afghan Taliban had been planning and executing attacks on Pakistani security forces along the Pak-Afghan border.
In one of such videos, Yahya Hafiz Gul Bahadur, the Taliban commander of the Dangar Algad region, is seen instructing militants to attack Pakistani posts. He states, “According to the plan, there will be six rocket launchers and six assistants, two lasers and two assistants, and a sniper. All these mujahideen are ready on the orders of Ameerul Momineen Sheikh Abadullah.”
Pakistan repeatedly urged Kabul not to allow terrorists to use its territory, yet evidence continues to prove that the Afghan interim government has shown little interest in controlling the infiltration of terrorists from Afghanistan into Pakistan. On multiple occasions, Pakistan has provided clear evidence of cross-border terrorism originating from Afghanistan.
