Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry this week said Kabul was unable to deny evidence of the funding and functioning of cells of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) from Afghan soil, as presented to them during the Pak-Afghan talks that collapsed earlier this month.
Speaking with a group of journalists at General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, video of which the ISPR released on Friday, he said Islamabad was clear in its stance that terrorism originating from Afghanistan against Pakistan was unacceptable. He said the government had endeavored to restore peace with the neighboring nation and expressed willingness for a “third-party agreement” that would detail a verifiable mechanism to combat cross-border terrorism.
However, he regretted, the Afghan Taliban had been unable to “convert” themselves into a state after returning to power in 2021 and were patronizing various non-state actors, including Fitna Al Khawarij [Islamabad’s designator for the TTP], Fitna al Hindustan, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Al Qaeda and Daesh. “We say that you need to act like a state now,” he said, recalling the Taliban had committed to denying the use of their soil for terrorism in the Doha Agreement.
“Our problem is not with the Afghans. Our problem is with the Afghan Taliban regime,” he emphasized. “Blood and business cannot go together,” he said, noting cross-border trade would not resume until Pakistan’s security could be assured.
To a question, Lt. Gen. Chaudhry rejected the Afghan Taliban’s allegations of Pakistan conducting overnight airstrikes in Afghanistan. He said Pakistan would willingly claim responsibility if it had taken any such steps. He also rebuffed the “good Taliban, bad Taliban” narrative, asserting Pakistan’s view was that the only “good” terrorist was a “dead terrorist.”
The military spokesman said 971,604 Afghans had been repatriated to their homeland in 2025 so far against 366,704 in all of 2024.
Cross-border tensions
The DG ISPR alleged Afghan forces opened fire on Pakistani checkposts across the border to facilitate the infiltration of terrorists. He also lamented the lack of civilian administration along the borders in terror-stricken areas. “Go to Tirah, Khyber, you will not find any governance. Neither will you find any courts, nor any departments that deal with law enforcement and writ of the government,” he said, adding several villages and populations were divided by the border.
“There are 29 tribes here that are divided, whose population is here [Pakistan] and there [Afghanistan] as well. Right on the border. How will you control the movement there?” he questioned, while noting that it was impossible to completely fence the porous border. He said military posts were set up around 15-25km from the border, adding the fence had no real value in military terms if it was not covered “by observation of fire.”
Reducing the gap and utilizing drone surveillance, he said, would incur heavy costs requiring investment in both infrastructure and manpower.
Terror-crime nexus
Addressing the “terror-crime nexus,” the military spokesman said this was facilitated by TTP cells based in Pakistan. He said they would attack military posts, creating space for smugglers to cross the border. A major part of this network, he said, was non-custom-paid vehicles.
“If there are 0.4-0.45 million non-custom-paid vehicles moving in your province, then why do you not stop them?” he said, questioning who was supposed to be responsible for this. “The non-customs paid vehicles are part of this political-terror-crime nexus, are being used in vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices and by these terrorists in their movement,” he said.
He said the smuggling of Iranian diesel was also a contributor to the “illegal spectrum, the funding of the terrorists.” He said that prior to the ongoing crackdown, permits were issued for “20.5 million liters per day, or it was smuggled. We have brought it down to the current average of 2.7m liters.”
Lt. Gen. Chaudhry said all governments and political parties agreed that solving terrorism required full implementation of the National Action Plan. He lamented that the KP government was lagging in local engagement, noting the administration and the military had 140 engagements per day with the local population, including school visits and jirgas. “The actual solution to terrorism lies in these,” he said.
He explained security forces had conducted 4,910 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) since Nov. 4, around 233 per day. “The intensity of the kinetic counter-terrorism effort is going up,” he said, noting these operations had killed 206 terrorists. From January through November, he said, 67,023 IBOs were conducted, comprising more than 53,000 in Balochistan; over 12,800 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; and around 850 in the rest of the country. He said there had been 4,729 terrorist incidents nationwide since January—3,357 in KP, 1,346 in Balochistan and 26 in the rest of the country.
Conflict with India
On India, Lt. Gen. Chaudhry reiterated that seven jets were down, 26 locations attacked and S400 batteries destroyed during the May conflict. “We can’t do anything about a delusional mind,” he said of Delhi’s refusal to accept its losses.
“Any country that provides any kind of equipment to the Afghan Taliban, saying they are giving it to their army, you can consider that it is available to the terrorists,” he said, referring to India’s recent warming of ties with Kabul.