Washington has reiterated its support for Pakistan\u2019s right to defend itself against terrorist attacks, with the US State Department saying that \u201cthe Pakistani people have suffered greatly at the hands of terrorists\u201d and that Washington \u201csupports Pakistan\u2019s right to defend itself against terrorist attacks.\u201d The remarks signal continued US backing for Pakistan\u2019s position that the violence it faces cannot be treated solely as an internal law-and-order issue.
\nThat matters because Islamabad\u2019s security problem has increasingly been internationalised by the conduct of the groups attacking it. The banned TTP and its affiliates are not operating as isolated local cells. They survive through sanctuaries, recruitment pipelines, propaganda networks, informal financing channels and cross-border mobility. Pakistan\u2019s charge against the Afghan Taliban authorities is simple: Kabul cannot claim the privileges of sovereignty while refusing the basic responsibility of preventing its soil from being used against a neighbour.
\nThis is where Islamabad must be careful. Pakistan\u2019s armed forces have carried a punishing counterterrorism burden, often at great human cost, and recent intelligence-based operations show the importance of precision. But the state\u2019s wider case will be won not by force alone. Every claim must be backed by evidence, every operation must be tied to credible intelligence, and every public statement must distinguish between terrorist infrastructure and ordinary Afghan civilians. The more disciplined Pakistan\u2019s case, the harder it becomes for Kabul or its sympathisers to reduce it to border politics.
\nUS State Department\u2019s remarks also come as Pakistan presses the United Nations to update a counterterrorism framework that has not kept pace with the threat. Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad was right to argue at the UN General Assembly plenary meeting on the Global Counterterrorism Strategy that terrorism is now \u201cincreasingly interconnected yet decentralised.\u201d
\nThis is also why Pakistan\u2019s focus on cryptocurrencies, virtual assets, social media radicalisation and politicised financial watchdogs is not a technical sideshow. It goes to the infrastructure of modern militancy. If global counterterrorism still treats terrorism as men with guns alone, it will keep missing the networks that sustain them.
\nPakistan has paid heavily for that failure. More than 1,200 Pakistanis were killed in terrorist attacks in the past year alone, and this tragic number alone is enough to compel action against sanctuaries, financing routes and propaganda ecosystems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington has reiterated its support for Pakistan\u2019s right to defend itself against terrorist attacks, with the US State Department saying that \u201cthe Pakistani people have suffered greatly at the hands of terrorists\u201d and that Washington \u201csupports Pakistan\u2019s right to defend itself against terrorist attacks.\u201d The remarks signal continued US backing for Pakistan\u2019s position that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-554583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\n