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

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.”

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.

Read: Info ministry calls out Afghan Taliban for deflecting attention from terrorist sanctuaries

Pakistan has repeatedly accused terrorist groups based in Afghanistan of carrying out attacks inside the country and demanded that Kabul take action against them. The Afghan Taliban government has rejected accusations that it allows its territory to be used for attacks against Pakistan.

Islamabad maintains that the terrorist nexus extended beyond the movement of terrorists across the border to their training, arming and operational support.

In 2026 alone, terrorism emanating from Afghan soil claimed the lives of 1,327 Pakistanis and injured another 2,484, according to figures cited by Pakistani authorities.

Officials said that whenever Pakistani forces targeted terrorist hideouts, the Taliban regime instead moved to defend the militants and their sanctuaries rather than dismantling the infrastructure. The issue, Pakistan has argued, was not confined to TTP.

UN assessments have continued to document the presence of several other militant organisations in Afghanistan, including al Qaeda, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and Islamic State-Khorasan, reinforcing concerns about the broader militant ecosystem operating from Afghan territory.

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Pakistani officials say the continued presence of these groups, combined with training facilities, cross-border infiltration and access to sophisticated weapons, demonstrates that Afghanistan remains an important base for terrorist activity affecting Pakistan.

Pakistan's position, according to officials, remains that Kabul must take concrete steps to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries, eliminate training infrastructure, prevent cross-border infiltration and ensure that Afghan territory is not used for attacks against Pakistan.

The government has maintained that the issue was fundamentally one of Pakistan's national security and that continued attacks from Afghan soil cannot be addressed through denials alone.

Pakistan says it expected the Taliban regime to fulfil its commitments by taking verifiable action against terrorist groups operating from its territory rather than defending or denying their presence.