Pakistan refutes former US envoy's 'unsubstantiated' allegations of arming Afghans to fight Taliban

Info ministry says Khalilzad's paddling of such allegations only exposes his 'skewed, agenda-based views'

The Ministry of Information on Saturday categorically rejected the baseless and misleading allegations by former US envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad of arming former Afghans to fight the Taliban and terrorist groups.

"Pakistan categorically rejects the baseless and misleading allegations by Khalilzad of arming former Afghans to fight the Taliban and their supporter terrorist groups. His sweeping baseless assertions merely recycle speculative narratives as part of his personal agenda to prop terrorism supporting Taliban regime," said the ministry in a statement issued on X.

The statement came in response to a post by former US diplomat Khalilzad on X, in which he claimed that Pakistan was arming Afghans to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan and that the "Pakistani military was recruiting Afghans to fight anti-Pakistan insurgents." 

The ministry further said it was misleading to conflate Pakistan's legitimate counterterrorism operations against terrorist organisations operating from inside Afghan Taliban regime-controlled areas threatening Pakistani citizens with allegations of "recruiting Afghan nationals or sponsoring armed groups inside Afghanistan.” 

*𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 | 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 & 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠*

◾️ Pakistan categorically rejects the baseless and misleading allegations by Zalmay Khalilzad of arming former Afghans to fight Taliban and their supporters terrorist groups. His… pic.twitter.com/c5UQfgAgh5

— Fact Checker MoIB (@FactCheckerMoIB) October 24, 2026

It added that Pakistan remained at the forefront of the fight against terrorism and had made enormous sacrifices to protect regional peace and security.

“Successive UN monitoring reports have documented the continued presence and activities of terrorist organisations, including TTP and Al-Qaeda, inside Afghanistan,” the ministry said.

The ministry stated that Khalilzad’s claims diverted attention from the Afghan Taliban regime’s responsibility to prevent its territory from being used by Indian-sponsored proxies for terrorism against Pakistan.

“Khalilzad paddling of such unsubstantiated allegations only exposes his skewed agenda-based views,” the ministry concluded.