Rakhshanda Mehtab
The relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan has reached a breaking point, fractured by a betrayal Pakistan can no longer ignore. The recent border escalation is not a sudden dispute but the final, painful eruption of a long festering wound. For years, Pakistan extended a hand of brotherhood, only to see the Taliban regime use it to shelter the very militants killing our citizens. The narrative emerging from Kabul, which attempts to cast Pakistan as the aggressor, dangerously distorts a reality rooted in pain, patience, and repeated betrayal.
This reality rests on a simple, undeniable fact: the current border tensions are neither sudden nor unjustified. They are the direct and inevitable consequence of years of cross-border terrorism originating from Afghan soil. This is not a mere allegation but a documented conclusion supported by Pakistan’s security forces and verified by international institutions.
To understand the depth of this betrayal, recall the summer of 2021. As the world condemned the Taliban and shuttered its embassies, Pakistan made a difficult choice. We kept our embassy open, becoming a critical lifeline and facilitated safe evacuations during the chaotic withdrawal, not out of alignment, but out of humanity. In every international forum, from the United Nations to the Economic Cooperation Organization, Pakistan became Afghanistan’s most vocal advocate, tirelessly demanding the unfreezing of $9 billion in assets to save ordinary Afghans from starvation. We championed Afghanistan’s stability, believing it was the only path to our own security.
The return on this investment has proven catastrophic. The stability we championed has become a weapon against us. The Taliban regime, which we engaged as a political reality, allowed Afghanistan to become a fortified refuge for TTP militants. Our soldiers and civilians began dying in attacks planned and launched from sanctuaries our officials had repeatedly identified.
Faced with this provocation, Pakistan responded with remarkable restraint. We mobilized for peace, not war. We sent our most respected religious scholars, led by Mufti Taqi Usmani, to appeal to the Taliban’s conscience. We followed this with a delegation of tribal elders, the traditional architects of conflict resolution. When these efforts yielded only empty promises, we escalated to the highest levels of government. The Defence Minister, the Interior Minister, and the Director-General of the ISI made repeated trips to Kabul, sitting across from Taliban officials, sharing precise intelligence, including the exact coordinates of terrorist camps and pushing for concrete cooperation.
We backed this diplomatic outreach with tangible economic goodwill. The Special Envoy for Afghanistan enhanced trade, resulting in the Early Harvest Program that reduced tariffs on key Afghan exports. We upheld the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA), granting landlocked Afghanistan duty-free access to our ports. For over four decades, we have hosted more than five million Afghan refugees, opened our schools to their children, and built hospitals for their sick. Our contributions to Afghanistan’s stability are a matter of historical record, unprecedented in scale and sincerity.
Instead of reciprocating, the Interim Afghan Government (IAG) allowed TTP violence to intensify into a systematic campaign. Despite repeated assurances, the IAG has refused to act against TTP and BLA terrorists operating freely from its territory. The facts reveal a chilling picture of calculated complicity:
– Fitna al Khawarij maintains over 60 terrorist camps across six Afghan provinces, functioning as trans-frontier hubs for infiltration.
– Since June 2025, Pakistani security agencies have documented a 36% increase in terrorist units and a 48% surge in cross-border militant movement.
– From other provinces like Zabul and Kandahar, approximately 1,200 terrorists have infiltrated Balochistan, demonstrating a coordinated, multi-front penetration.
The 36th UN Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team Report from July 2025 confirms Pakistan’s worst fears. It states unequivocally that Afghan authorities maintain a “permissive environment” for Al-Qaida and the TTP. The report reveals that six Afghan provinces host active Al-Qaida training camps under Taliban oversight, details three new joint Al-Qaida-TTP training sites, and documents that the TTP’s 6,000 fighters receive full logistical, financial, and operational support from the Taliban regime.
This international validation only echoes the gruesome proof from each attack. TTP chief Noor Wali Mehsud lives not in a cave, but comfortably in Kabul under official protection, receiving a $43,000 monthly Taliban stipend. When rumours of an attack on him surfaced, Afghan social media accounts frantically confirmed his survival, inadvertently admitting his state-sanctioned presence.
Weapons worth over $7 billion, left behind by NATO forces, now arm TTP and BLA terrorists, as Afghan commanders sell advanced equipment like M16 rifles and night-vision devices to militant groups. In the recent assault on the Frontier Constabulary headquarters in Bannu, three of the six terrorists were Afghan nationals, including the suicide bomber. Across Pakistan, security forces have eliminated over 207 Afghan nationals involved in terrorist attacks, each identified by name and address. The Taliban’s promise to not allow its soil to be used against others is a proven and cynical lie.
The Pakistan-Afghanistan border, historically one of the world’s softest, has been ruthlessly exploited by Kabul for terrorist infiltration. Meanwhile, the Afghan Interim Foreign Minister’s courtship of India continues a familiar pattern of exploitation, whereby New Delhi has consistently used Afghanistan for its strategic interests before abandoning it.
The Taliban’s claim that terrorism is Pakistan’s internal issue is a deliberate deception. The fight against terrorism is a collective responsibility. The Afghan Taliban must emerge from their state of denial, honour their commitment to deny Afghan soil for terrorism, and contribute meaningfully to regional peace.
This complicity forces a painful reckoning. Pakistan’s patience, woven over forty years of immense sacrifice, is finally exhausted. The protection of our sovereignty and the lives of our people is our supreme and non-negotiable duty. Regulating our border and the status of Afghan nationals are no longer just policy issues; they are urgent matters of national survival.
The choice now lies unequivocally with the Taliban in Kabul. They can continue their dangerous double-game, making overtures to regional powers like India that have a history of using and abandoning Afghanistan. Or, they can finally act as the “brotherly” neighbour they claim to be, taking decisive, verifiable action against the terrorists they shelter. Pakistan continues to seek a peaceful, stable, and prosperous Afghanistan. But our commitment to dialogue cannot be mistaken for weakness. The era of one-sided generosity is over. Any future provocation will invite a firm and proportionate response. The blood of our citizens has written this ultimatum. The Taliban must now decide which side of history they wish to be on.
The writer is MS Research Scholar at IIUI, a freelance content writer and a columnist.
