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Pakistan Terrorism Watch

Fatman17

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Pakistan–Afghanistan border clashes are neither sudden nor unjustified.

When the Taliban took Kabul in 2021, the entire world vacated its embassies. Pakistan, which had hosted millions of Afghans for over four decades, kept its mission open and acted as a lifeline for evacuees during the chaotic withdrawal.

At the post-withdrawal UN-led conferences on Afghanistan, Pakistan was the loudest voice for unfreezing Afghanistan's $9 billion in assets. It even used regional forums like ECO to lobby for the same.

Pakistan hoped for peace and stability. Instead, the Taliban regime turned Afghanistan into a safe haven for the TTP.

Yet, despite repeated betrayals, Pakistan tried every peaceful route: religious, tribal, and official.

In July 2022, an 8-member ulema delegation led by Mufti Taqi Usmani went to Kabul to convince the Taliban and TTP to stop attacks. A few days later, a 17-member tribal jirga carried the same message.

On February 22, 2023, a high-level delegation led by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and DG ISI Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum visited Kabul to push for peace.

In July 2024, Interior Minister Naqvi led another delegation for security cooperation.

Pakistan's diplomacy was not empty words. Special Envoy Muhammad Sadiq worked to build trade ties, leading to the Early Harvest Programme (EHP), which cut tariffs on eight key agricultural items for the benefit of both sides.

Pakistan kept talking even under fire. After the deadliest clashes in years in October 2025, it accepted a Qatar-mediated ceasefire and follow-up talks in Doha and Istanbul, which failed to produce a lasting agreement. In February 2026, Saudi mediation secured the release of three Pakistani soldiers captured by Afghanistan. Even after the war began, Pakistan sat down at China-mediated talks in Ürümqi in April. Its demands were minimal and fair: designate the TTP a terrorist organisation, dismantle its infrastructure, and provide verifiable proof. Even that was too much for the Taliban regime.

But what did Pakistan get in return?

According to Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) data:

• 2021: 89 attacks
• 2022: 262 attacks
• 2023: 306 attacks
• 2024: 521 attacks
• 2025: 699 attacks, killing at least 1,034 people
• 2026 (Jan–Aug): 3,150 deaths (including about 488 security personnel)

The worst betrayal came during Pakistan's 4-day war with India in May 2025. Afghanistan sent a 40-member TTP tashkeel, including the son of a Taliban official, to attack from the western front, stabbing Pakistan in the back while it was fighting its eastern enemy.

2026 has been the deadliest year for Pakistani security forces. By mid-year alone, 3,844 total fatalities, with 1,027+ security forces martyred.

In July 2026 alone, 112 security personnel were martyred, the highest monthly toll since January 2023. That month also saw eight suicide attacks; the most in a single month in a decade. Behind every number is a soldier, a policeman, a family.

What triggered Pakistan's latest strikes? Just one week is enough to understand.

A suicide bomber struck a mosque inside a police compound in Kohat. Eight gunmen then stormed the compound, and a 20-hour battle left at least 21 dead, mostly police officers, wounding over 100.

Days later, clashes in Hangu killed six Pakistani security personnel. The attackers were the TTP and its allied groups operating from Afghan soil. At the UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told the world that more than two dozen anti-Pakistan militant groups are present in Afghanistan.

Pakistan's patience had run out.

On September 21, Pakistan struck three militant targets in Afghanistan killing 28 terrorists. The strikes were intelligence-based, targeted, and aimed only at the terrorists being hosted in Afghanistan.

How did the Taliban regime respond?

Not by acting against the terrorists, but by escalating. Taliban forces launched eight drones toward Kohat and Torkham and shelled Pakistani border posts.
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Fatman17

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Pakistan's forces neutralised the drones and hit back. On September 24, Pakistan struck 10 sites used to launch the drones. Pakistan's response was calibrated and proportionate; limited to identified military objectives.

We have seen this pattern before.

In October 2025, 11 soldiers, including a Lt Col and a Major, were martyred in an operation against TTP militants in Orakzai. Militants then attacked the Police Training School in D.I. Khan, martyring seven policemen. Then came a full-blown attack across the border. Pakistan lost 23 soldiers and killed more than 200 Taliban and affiliated fighters.

Even recent diplomatic outreach met the same disdain. According to a Kandahar source, Taliban ministers told Türkiye’s intelligence chief that issues could only be discussed in Kandahar. Invited there, the Taliban chief reportedly refused at the last minute, calling them “Western.” The meeting was shifted to an undiplomatic setting in Mullah Omar Mosque with the Kandahar governor. The Turkish chief later told Pakistan that expecting “sensible behaviour” from the Taliban means “fooling ourselves.”

Now decide for yourself.

Is Pakistan the aggressor, or a state defending its people from cross-border terrorism?
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Fatman17

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PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan said it carried out airstrikes early Thursday on 10 sites in Afghanistan that it said were used to launch drone attacks against Pakistan a day earlier, a sharp escalation in fighting between the two countries that threatens international mediation efforts.
 

VickyIndian

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Pakistan is indeed facing a tough time. Terrorism has been brutal and has caused mayhem.

But this story doesn’t start and end as stated by many people. And it is not as black and white either.

Pakistan has used non state actors to further it’s cause in the past. Many Pak rulers have accepted it openly on camera. And they have tried to justify it too. Blaming the West while owning up nothing. Zia, Musharraf and even Sharif are few prominent ones who boasted about those days.

There was not even a hint of remorse at wrong policy decisions. Decisions to train vast numbers to fight sub-conventional wars is being justified as the necessity of that moment and that time.

Even today only those aspects are being highlighted that show Pakistan in positive light. That side where Pakistan is seen only as a victim with no responsibility for it’s past policies. Past policies that created and nurtured this monster that has come home to roost.

While it is really sad that innocent people are loosing life, but sadly it isn’t as simple and a major responsibility lies on Pakistan itself to creating it.
 
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