ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has warned the interim Afghan Taliban government that cross-border terrorism must end, as officials prepare for the next round of Pakistan–Afghanistan talks in Türkiye on November 6, following last month’s Istanbul negotiations mediated by Türkiye and Qatar.
“The conditions that the Afghan Taliban keep putting forward are meaningless — what matters is the end of terrorism,” said Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the military’s spokesperson, while briefing journalists at the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) in Rawalpindi. “Pakistan has a one-point agenda: Afghan soil must not be used against us.”
The upcoming meeting in Türkiye will build on the six-day talks held in Istanbul in October, where both sides reaffirmed the Doha ceasefire and agreed in principle to establish a joint monitoring and verification mechanism to prevent cross-border militant activity — though key implementation details remain unresolved.
During his briefing, Gen Chaudhry said Pakistan’s counterterrorism operations against militants belonging to Fitna al-Khawarij — the term used by the state for the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — have intensified, with 1,647 terrorists eliminated in recent operations. That included 1098 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 549 in Balochistan, and 128 Afghan militants.
He noted that Pakistan’s retaliatory strikes in early October killed 318 militants, including 206 Afghan Taliban fighters and 110 TTP militants, following a series of deadly cross-border attacks from Afghanistan targeting Pakistani security forces in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
“We have conveyed to Afghanistan that it must either take decisive action against these militants or hand them over to us so they can be brought to justice,” Gen Chaudhry said.
He reiterated that the TTP functions as a branch of the Afghan Taliban, maintaining allegiance (bay‘ah) to the Taliban’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, and warned that Pakistan “will continue to act decisively” against any threat emanating from across the border.
According to Gen Chaudhry, the retaliatory operations were based on credible intelligence and targeted militant hideouts used for attacks on Pakistani security personnel. He said these actions demonstrated Pakistan’s resolve to defend its territorial integrity while continuing to seek diplomatic engagement with Kabul.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban-led government of allowing the TTP to operate freely on its soil — a charge the Taliban deny. However, Pakistani officials insist that Kabul must take concrete measures to prevent its territory from being used for terrorism against Pakistan.
