Pakistan rejects Afghan Taliban ‘diversionary allegations, demands action against TTP and BLA

Pakistan on Saturday accused the Afghan Taliban regime of resorting to “diversionary allegations” instead of addressing its “legitimate and longstanding security concerns”, urging Kabul to take verifiable action against terrorist groups, including the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), operating from Afghan soil.

The statement came a day after Afghan Taliban regime spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid accused Pakistan’s security agencies of blaming Afghanistan for their failure to maintain security at home, allegedly to mislead the public.

Responding to this in a statement posted on X, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said the Afghan Taliban regime had resorted to “diversionary allegations” instead of addressing Pakistan’s “legitimate and longstanding security concerns”.

“Blaming Pakistan’s security institutions does not absolve the Regime of its responsibility to prevent Afghan territory from being used for terrorism against Pakistan,” the ministry said.

It called on the Afghan Taliban regime to end any tolerance, facilitation or support for terrorist organisations, including the TTP, BLA and their affiliates, and ensure that Afghan territory was not used to plan, prepare or launch attacks against Pakistan.

The ministry said Pakistan’s concerns were not based on conjecture, citing the United Nations Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team’s 16th report and the US Lead Inspector General’s Operation Enduring Sentinel report to Congress for January-March 2026.

According to the ministry, the US report stated that the Afghan Taliban continued to allow the TTP to operate from Afghan territory, with Taliban support and greater freedom for the group contributing to an increase in attacks against Pakistan. It estimated the TTP’s strength at 4,000 to 6,000 fighters.

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

The ministry said these assessments underscored the seriousness of Pakistan’s concerns about terrorist sanctuaries and support networks operating from Afghan soil.

It also rejected the assertion that Afghanistan lacked either the capacity or the interest to destabilise Pakistan, saying the claim did not address the documented concerns.

Repeated attempts by armed terrorists to infiltrate across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the killing of Afghan nationals and members of terrorist groups during Pakistan’s counterterrorism operations, and the recovery of foreign-origin weapons from terrorist elements warranted serious scrutiny, the statement said.

Pakistan had also raised concerns over the alleged facilitation of terrorist groups by Afghan Taliban officials, including officials in Kandahar, it added.

“Such concerns cannot be dismissed through blanket denials; they require credible explanations and verifiable action,” the ministry said.

The statement stressed that Pakistan’s security measures were directed against terrorist threats, not the Afghan people, adding that peace and stability in the two countries were closely linked.

It said the Afghan people stood to gain as much as their Pakistani neighbours from a region free of terrorism.

The ministry said attempts to portray Pakistan’s security concerns and defensive measures as hostility towards Afghanistan would neither deflect attention from the issue nor resolve it.

Pakistan would continue to take all necessary measures to protect its citizens, sovereignty and territorial integrity, it said, adding that Islamabad remained open to responsible engagement based on mutual respect, verifiable commitments and concrete action against terrorist sanctuaries, support networks and cross-border infiltration.

Also Read: Pakistan hits Afghan terror hideouts; 22 killed

“Peace can only prevail in the region if Pakistan’s core concern of terrorism originating from Afghanistan is verifiably addressed by the Afghan Taliban,” the statement said.

On Friday, the Afghan Taliban spokesperson rejected Pakistan’s claims that Afghanistan was allowing its territory to be used for terrorist activities against Pakistan, accusing Pakistani officials of shifting blame for their own security failures onto Kabul.

In a statement posted on X, Afghan Taliban regime spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said Pakistani military circles and other security agencies blamed Afghanistan when they failed to establish security in their own country, in an attempt to mislead the public.

“We once again strongly reject the repeated accusations directed by Pakistani officials at Afghanistan regarding the destabilisation of security in their country,” he said.

Mujahid said it was not in Afghanistan’s interest to create insecurity in Pakistan or support acts of instability there. He also claimed that Afghanistan lacked the capabilities and resources to foment or finance insecurity in other countries.

“Insecurity in a neighbouring country directly harms both the region and Afghanistan,” he said, adding that instability in Pakistan was detrimental to Afghanistan in economic, social and humanitarian terms.

The spokesperson accused Pakistani officials of blaming Afghanistan instead of focusing on their own security responsibilities. He also alleged that Pakistan was spending resources on efforts to destabilise Afghanistan.

“This amounts to evading their primary and fundamental responsibilities, undermining regional stability, and wasting economic resources on futile endeavours,” he said.

Mujahid further claimed that the approach had distracted Pakistan’s security forces from their own duties and diverted their attention from the responsibilities they were supposed to fulfil.

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.

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.

facebook