PAKISTAN-Afghanistan relations have remained at the lowest ebb since the beginning of 2026. Despite the serious efforts of the friendly states, Islamabad and Kabul have failed to bridge their differences because the latter is not prepared to change its policy of harboring terrorist groups and assisting them through financial and weaponry support. Pakistan’s Defense Ninister described the situation as one of “open war” with Afghanistan. Indeed, the growing mistrust between neighbouring states is neither in the interests of Afghans nor of Pakistanis.
The main cause of the deplorable situation between Pakistan and Afghanistan is the terrorist outfits affiliated with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Baloch Liberation Army, Majeed Brigade and the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), whose close affiliation with the de-facto Taliban regime and sanctuaries in Afghanistan have worsened relations. Moreover, India has constituted close relations with the Afghan Taliban by reopening its embassy in Kabul in 2022. India’s presence in Afghanistan is disadvantageous for Pakistan because it has been using Afghanistan as its proxy. The anti-Pakistan militant groups residing in Afghanistan receive financial and material support from India to conduct terrorism in Pakistan.
Afghan Taliban regime received the drone technology and material from India. It has been transferring drones, especially quadcopters, to TTP and Baloch terrorist groups. Therefore, drones have become a common sight in many areas of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan because TTP and its affiliates use them against Pakistani law enforcement agencies and to record their operations for social media posts. In May 2026, the KP Police reported that there were 246 instances of drone attacks in 2025, with 215 attacks recorded in Bannu alone. In December 2025, the army spokesperson, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, publicly acknowledged for the first time that the TTP was using drones. He revealed that terrorist groups conducted 405 drone attacks in 2025.
Recently, the Afghan Taliban launched four drones across the border into Balochistan as part of its patronage and support for terrorist outfits operating from territories under its control. Fortunately, the Pakistani security forces foiled the attacks by neutralizing all four incoming drones using sophisticated countermeasures. Last week, tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan heated up again after terrorist attacks on the Karachi base killed three Rangers personnel. In retaliation, the Pakistan Air Force launched air strikes on terrorist sanctuaries in three Afghan provinces—Paktia, Paktika and Kunar—killing 25 militants and destroying weapons. Notably, Pakistan adopted a kinetic strategy (PAF airstrikes on militant hideouts inside Afghanistan) only after exhausting every political and diplomatic avenue to persuade the Taliban regime to stop sponsoring TTP terrorism.
Afghanistan is in dire need of economic reconstruction. But its de facto Taliban regime has failed to realize that the prerequisites for the country’s economic reconstruction are political stability within the state and cordial relations with neighboring states. Unfortunately, the de facto Taliban regime has failed to bring internal political and security stability. Its patronage of transnational terrorist organizations for the sake of a militant economy has obstructed internal economic development, caused severe poverty and worsened Afghanistan’s relations with its neighboring states.
Importantly, the six neighbours of Afghanistan and the Russian Federation have tried to convince the Taliban regime to terminate transnational terrorist syndicates’ safe hideouts from Afghanistan, but they failed. Consequently, these countries have failed to turn Afghanistan into a trade corridor between Central Asia, West Asia and South Asia. The de-facto Taliban government’s non-serious attitude towards a diplomatic solution of the problems with Pakistan and continuous support to terrorist groups obstruct the connectivity projects such as the Uzbekistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan (UAP) Railway Project, which is aimed at creating a direct railway link between Uzbekistan and Pakistan, passing through Afghanistan’s territory.
The deplorable situation between Pakistan and Afghanistan is having deteriorating repercussions for both states’ trade. According to Pakistan’s National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce, the closure of the Afghan border had cost Pakistan USD 1.1 billion in export losses. Afghanistan is encountering higher losses being a landlocked state. Despite the mega trade losses, the Pakistani ruling elite seems determined to keep the border closed until Kabul acts responsibly and stops patronizing the militancy.
The increasing tension with the de-facto Taliban government is augmenting Pakistan’s insecurity. India is using non-state actors to undermine Pakistan’s internal security by providing them financial and material support, such as drones, which raises a serious challenge for Pakistani security forces. Therefore, to counter this mounting threat, security policymakers in Pakistan should devise a long-term plan to include an anti-drone policy by paramilitary forces.
—The writer is Vice Chancellor of the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.
