By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan warned the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday that terrorism originating from Afghan soil represented the “gravest threat” to its national security and sovereignty, amid a surge in militant attacks that Islamabad attributes to groups harbored by the Taliban government in Kabul.
The statement came during a Council debate on the situation in Afghanistan, where Pakistan’s permanent representative, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, outlined his country’s mounting concerns over security, humanitarian and socioeconomic challenges spilling across the border.
Briefing the Council on Pakistan’s counterterrorism efforts since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021, the ambassador described Islamabad’s sustained engagement with the Afghan authorities, including high-level visits, humanitarian aid facilitation, support for goods transportation and trade concessions.
Despite these initiatives, he said, threats have only intensified, posing broader risks to the region. “Afghanistan is once again a safe sanctuary for terrorist groups and proxies, with devastating consequences and mounting security challenges for its immediate neighbours, particularly Pakistan, and the region and beyond,” Ahmad said. He accused Afghan authorities of failing to take concrete action against terrorist organisations, leading to a wave of attacks planned, financed and executed from Afghan territory.
“Just this year alone, we have lost close to 1,200 lives to terrorism emanating from Afghanistan. Since 2022, more than 214 Afghan terrorists, including suicide bombers, have been neutralised in Pakistan during counter-terror operations,” the ambassador said. “Terrorism emanating from Afghan soil poses the gravest threat to Pakistan’s national security and sovereignty,” he added, naming banned groups like the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Al-Qaeda, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and the Majeed Brigade as enjoying “safe haven” in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has repeatedly thwarted infiltration attempts by TTP and BLA militants from across the border, Ahmad said, with security forces confiscating stockpiles of sophisticated, military-grade equipment abandoned by international forces during the 2021 withdrawal. “These efforts have had a human cost, with huge sacrifices by our valiant security forces and civilians,” he said.
The ambassador pointed to complicity within the Taliban itself, saying that “elements within the Taliban rank and file are supporting these terrorist groups and allowing them safe passage to operate with impunity and free will. There is also credible evidence of collaboration among these terrorist groups through joint training, illicit weapons trade, refuge to terrorists, and coordinated attacks against Pakistan using the Afghan soil.”
He went further, alluding to external interference. “And not surprisingly, one detractor in the region, opportunist, and spoiler, has moved fast to intensify its sponsorship of terrorist activity through material, technical and financial support, to terrorist groups and proxies active against Pakistan from Afghan soil.”
Ahmad called on the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) to bolster its work in curbing illicit arms trafficking and to deliver an impartial evaluation of border security, and emphasised that cross-border terrorism was the root cause of reported clashes along the frontier.
Highlighting recent diplomatic overtures, the ambassador noted Pakistan’s participation in talks with the Afghan Taliban in Doha and Istanbul. He expressed appreciation to the governments of Qatar and Türkiye for hosting those discussions and pressed the Taliban for “concrete, verifiable action” against terrorist outfits. Failure to act, he warned, would compel Pakistan to undertake “all necessary defensive measures” to safeguard its people and territorial integrity.
Beyond security, Mr. Ahmad addressed Pakistan’s longstanding role in sheltering Afghan refugees, noting that millions have been hosted over four decades despite Islamabad’s own resource limitations. “With conflict now ended, we expect that Afghans will now return to their country of origin in a dignified, phased and orderly manner,” he said, adding that Pakistan would continue providing support but urging the international community to “shoulder its responsibility.”
He detailed Pakistan’s visa policies, which permit legal entry for Afghans seeking education, medical treatment, business or family reunions. More than 536,000 medical visas have been granted since September 2023, the ambassador said.
Ahmad cautioned against nations with “negative agendas” exploiting bilateral ties to sow instability along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border or in the region at large. “No country desires peace and stability in Afghanistan more than Pakistan. No country has suffered from the consequences of decades of conflict more than Pakistan,” he said.
Pakistan’s warnings arrive against a grim backdrop detailed in recent reports. A study by the United States watchdog, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, has confirmed that billions of dollars in American-supplied weapons, military gear and security infrastructure abandoned during the 2021 withdrawal now underpin the Taliban’s forces. Separate evaluations by United Nations monitoring teams and investigative accounts in The Washington Post suggest that some of this armament has filtered to the TTP, bolstering a faction blamed for heightened assaults within Pakistan. A UN panel has also documented ongoing Taliban provision of logistical and operational backing to the TTP, lending weight to Islamabad’s alarms over terrorist sanctuaries and transnational militancy.
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