Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry on Monday emphasized that Pakistan has only demand of Afghanistan—an end to terrorism emanating from Afghan soil.
Briefing senior journalists in Rawalpindi, he said the conditions put forward by the Afghan Taliban are “meaningless.” Pakistan, he asserted, has only one agenda: “Afghan soil must not be used against us.” Pakistan and Afghanistan, after more than a week of border clashes, achieved a ceasefire that was extended during a mediated meeting in Istanbul last week. The next round of talks is due for Istanbul on Nov. 6.
During his briefing, the military’s spokesman summarized operations underway against terrorists, saying 1,667 terrorists had been killed. In the border clashes with the Afghan Taliban regime, he said, 206 Afghan Taliban fighters and 112 terrorists of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were killed. He regretted the blurring of lines between the two groups, adding about 60% of terrorists killed during infiltration attempts in the last three to four months were Afghan nationals.
“The TTP is not a separate entity, it is a branch of the Afghan Taliban,” he said, alleging evidence that the Taliban are settling TTP fighters in densely populated areas to provide them protective “human shields.” He stressed that Pakistan desired peaceful ties with Afghanistan, but this could not come at the cost of compromising the country’s security and sovereignty.
To a question on reports in “Afghan and Indian media” concerning an allegedly secret Pak-U.S. deal allowing American drone operations in Afghanistan, he said it was “fake news” propagated by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. “Pakistan has not given permission to the U.S. or any other country to use its territory for attacks inside Afghanistan. These claims are baseless propaganda,” he said.
Lt. Gen. Chaudhry said a key part of security forces’ counter-terrorism was targeting narcotics activity, noting opium cultivation was funding militancy. “Drones, the ANF and the Frontier Corps destroyed poppy fields in the Tirah valley,” he said, adding Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has around 12,000 acres under poppy cultivation and that profits ranged from Rs. 1.8 million to Rs. 3.2 million per acre. “Local politicians and others are involved in this cultivation,” he said, without specifying anyone.
To another question, he said he considered Sohail Afridi the legitimately elected chief minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Chaudhry also warned that India was planning a “false flag” operation in the maritime domain to fabricate evidence of a major Pakistani strike or act of aggression, potentially triggering a new round of tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals. He said Pakistan’s armed forces were on “high alert” and would deliver a “far stronger, more decisive, and severe” response than in previous incidents if provoked.
Last week, the government released a video confession of a fisherman from Sindh, Ijaz Mallah, who claimed he was coerced in 2024 by Indian intelligence to engage in espionage-related activities in Pakistan.
To another question, the DG ISPR said there was no decision on the potential deployment of Pakistani troops to Gaza as part of a peacekeeping force. This matter would be decided by the government and Parliament, he added.