Rawalpindi: Pakistan’s military spokesman on Tuesday said Afghan militants were involved in several major terrorist attacks inside the country during 2025, while also alleging that a politically conducive environment in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, under the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, had enabled terrorist groups to operate, regroup and expand.
Addressing a detailed press conference, Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations, described 2025 as a “landmark and consequential year” in Pakistan’s counterterrorism campaign, stressing that terrorism remained the gravest threat facing the state.
2025 a turning point in counterterrorism fight
Lt Gen Chaudhry said the past year marked a turning point due to four factors: the unprecedented intensity of counterterrorism operations, nationwide clarity on the nature of terrorism, growing international acknowledgement that Afghan soil was being used for militant activity, and the renewed implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP).
According to official data shared at the briefing, law enforcement agencies conducted 75,175 intelligence-based operations across the country in 2025 — an average of 206 operations per day. Of these, 14,658 operations were carried out in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 58,778 in Balochistan, and 1,739 elsewhere.
Despite this, 5,397 terrorist incidents were reported nationwide. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa accounted for 3,811 incidents (71 per cent), while Balochistan recorded 1,557 incidents, with the remaining cases reported from other regions.
Terrorist casualties and suicide attacks
The DG ISPR said 2,597 terrorists were killed during operations in 2025 — 1,800 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 784 in Balochistan, and 10 in other areas. During the same period, 1,235 civilians and law enforcement personnel were martyred.
He also disclosed that 27 suicide attacks took place during the year, including 16 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 10 in Balochistan, and one at Islamabad’s judicial complex. Two of the attacks involved female suicide bombers.
Alleged political facilitation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Explaining why Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remained the epicentre of militant violence, Lt Gen Chaudhry said terrorism there was not only a security issue but also a political and governance challenge.
He alleged that a “politically conducive environment” created by the provincial government had allowed terrorist groups to find space, describing what he termed a political-criminal-terror nexus operating in the province. Without naming individuals, he said this environment had provided indirect facilitation, allowing militants to regroup, fundraise and expand their influence.
The DG ISPR said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had failed to effectively counter this nexus, adding that counterterrorism required clear political ownership, enforcement of law, and rejection of all forms of militant sympathy or appeasement.
Afghanistan-linked resurgence after Doha Agreement
Providing historical context, Lt Gen Chaudhry said terrorism began rising sharply after 2021, following developments in Afghanistan after the 2020 Doha Agreement between the United States and the Afghan Taliban.
He said the Afghan Taliban had pledged to prevent the use of Afghan soil for terrorism, form an inclusive government and protect women’s rights — commitments he said had not been honoured. Instead, Afghanistan had become a base for multiple terrorist organisations and non-state actors.
The ISPR chief alleged that the Afghan Taliban were reorganising and supporting the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), officially designated as Fitna al-Khawarij, by providing training, direction and operational space. He also said militant groups linked to Balochistan, referred to by the state as Fitna al-Hindustan, were operating from Afghan territory with external backing.
Foreign militants and abandoned US weaponry
Lt Gen Chaudhry said around 2,500 foreign terrorists, neither Afghan nor Pakistani, had recently entered Afghanistan from Syria. He added that US military equipment worth approximately $7.2 billion, left behind after the withdrawal of international forces, had entered black markets and was now accessible to terrorist groups.
The equipment, he said, included night-vision devices, sniper rifles, M-4 and M-16 rifles, and advanced protective gear.
Allegations of Indian involvement
The DG ISPR also accused India of providing financial and logistical support to militant groups targeting Pakistan, alleging that Afghan territory was being used as a base while external patronage sustained what he described as a regional “war economy”.
He said Afghan militants were involved in 10 major terrorist attacks in Pakistan during 2025, all targeting civilians and soft targets. These included the Jaffar Express attack, which killed 21 civilians, assaults on a civilian bus in Noshki, and attacks on Frontier Corps headquarters in Quetta and Peshawar.
He also claimed Afghan militants were behind an attempted attack on Cadet College Wana, which he said was designed to replicate the 2014 APS Peshawar massacre.
Drones, border action and military response
During the briefing, video confessions of arrested militants were shown, which the DG ISPR said demonstrated where attacks were planned and directed. He rejected allegations that the Pakistan Army used drones to target civilians, saying drones were used primarily for surveillance, while militant groups employed armed quadcopters with external support.
Lt Gen Chaudhry said Pakistan had taken firm action along the Afghan border in recent months, including operations in October 2025 that dismantled militant infrastructure and neutralised dozens of hostile posts within hours. He stressed that these actions targeted the TTP and allied groups, not the Afghan Taliban as a whole.
Concluding the briefing, he said Pakistan’s fight against terrorism required clear political resolve, provincial cooperation and zero tolerance for militant facilitation, warning that any political ambiguity only strengthened extremist networks and endangered national security.
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