IN his detailed interaction with newspersons, Director-General, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) underlined the Indo-Afghan nexus in fuelling terrorism inside Pakistan and threw light on the all-encompassing campaign undertaken by the Pakistan Army and other law enforcing agencies that will, hopefully, lead to elimination of the menace once for all.
Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said militant organizations were using Afghan territory as their operational base, while funding and support were coming from India. Addressing the hostilities with Afghanistan, the ISPR chief said that the Afghan Taliban regime had attacked Pakistani border posts, following which, “whatever was needed was done and a hard message was given”.
It is, indeed, a matter of serious concern that terrorist outfits from across the globe are converging in Afghanistan due to open-arm policy of the incumbent regime in Kabul and terrorists are being trained, financed and equipped by India as part of its strategy to inflict maximum harm on Pakistan in an unconventional and indirect war. Afghan territory is being used by multiple terrorist organizations and groups such as the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and as per information provided by the military spokesperson, due to the situation in Syria, around 2,500 militants had recently moved to Afghanistan, adding they were neither Afghans nor Pakistanis. It is understood that the Afghan Taliban are not responding positively to repeated requests of Pakistan for verifiable action against militant groups engaged in carrying out terrorist activities inside Pakistan due to multi-faceted linkages being developed by Kabul and New Delhi. The challenge is enormous but the resolve of Pakistan defence forces and nations is more robust and there is complete clarity that the threat will have to be rooted out at all costs. This is evident from the fact that security forces conducted an average of more than 206 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) daily in 2025 and the total number of IBOs reached 75,175. Understandably, most operations were carried out in Balochistan, where 58,778 IBOs were conducted followed by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 14,658 operations, while 1,739 took place in the rest of the country. Security forces killed 2,597 militants during the year, including 1,803 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 784 in Balochistan.
A total of 27 suicide bombers were reported, with 16 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 10 in Balochistan. A specialised militant wing operated armed drones to target mosques, public places and residential areas, often using women and children as human shields. Addressing the concerns and rumours raised regarding harm to civilians, Lt Gen Chaudhry said that a false narrative is being propagated that the Pakistan Army uses drones during anti-terror operations. He said that it was Fitna al-Khawarij, TTP, which started using armed quadcopters, adding that their patron, India, provides them with full support. One must agree with the spokesperson who said that seeking assurances from a group accused of harbouring terrorists was illogical, reiterating that counterterrorism required firm state action rather than political ambiguity. Pakistan tried the option of dialogue with militants and they were brought back to the country but they resumed their anti-state activities. In fact, those opposing operations against terrorists are indirectly supporting the almost daily killing of innocent people. Similarly, how a country or government can condone attacks on law enforcing agencies that have a responsibility to protect lives and properties of citizens. The spokesperson has rightly cautioned that the prevailing environment had enabled extremist groups to organize, build facilitation networks and repeatedly challenge the writ of the state, with implications for the country’s overall security situation. Terrorists are terrorists and there is no justification to plead their case and ignore threats to the lives of the people and personnel of security agencies. The entire state apparatus should work in unison to expose and eliminate terrorists and their sponsors.
