Afghan | Pakistan

Says Delhi sponsors terrorists operating from Afghan soil FO terms Pak actions 'legitimate, proportionate' and t

Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Tahir Andrabi on Wednesday rejected India’s “preposterous statement” regarding Pakistan’s recent strikes against terrorists and their hideouts along the Afghan border. In a post on X, the FO spokesperson said Pakistan rejected the “baseless statement” by India on its “legitimate, targeted and proportionate actions” against terrorist infrastructure in Afghanistan. “This preposterous statement has been made by a country that has historically interfered in and undermined the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbouring countries, in contravention of the UN Charter, and continues to suppress the right to self-determination of the Kashmiris in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, in violation of the relevant UN resolutions,” he said. “India has also been actively aiding and sponsoring terrorist groups operating from Afghan soil against Pakistan, in violation of the relevant UN Security Council sanctions regime, and continues to play the role of a regional spoil...

Foreign Office protests use of Afghan soil for cross-border terrorism

Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said on Monday that the Afghan chargé d’affaires was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mofa) and issued a strong demarche over the terrorist attack on a Rangers facility in Karachi. On Saturday night, terrorists attacked the local headquarters of the Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) in Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar area, during which three security personnel were martyred and four were injured, according to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). ISPR said the attack was carried out by terrorists “belonging to Indian proxy Jamaatul Ahrar” (JuA), adding that three terrorists were killed in retaliatory action while one was arrested, whom it identified as an Afghan national. Andrabi confirmed Islamabad’s summoning of the envoy in a statement on Monday, in response to media queries regarding Pakistan’s demarche to the Afghan Taliban regime. He added that a “similar demarche” was conveyed by Pakistan’s Ambassador Ubaidur Rehman Nizamani to the Afghan Ministry of Fore...

The Ministry of Interior on Sunday issued a directive to immediately arrest any Afghan national “found residing in Pakistan without a valid visa” from July 10, 2026. In a notification addressing the chief secretaries of all provinces, as well as those of Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and the chief commissioner of Islamabad Capital Territory, the ministry said that the directive referred to the decisions taken during a review meeting on the Illegal Foreigners’ Repatriation Plan (IFRP) on June 1, 2026. It said that during the meeting, “all provincial governments, special area governments and the ICT Administration were directed to expedite the repatriation/deportation of Afghan nationals, including visa overstay cases, and to ensure strict implementation of the IFRP”. “With effect from July 10, 2026, any Afghan national found residing in Pakistan without a valid visa shall be arrested immediately,” the notification said. It added that the necessary directions might, therefore, be issued to all de...

Five injured in Afghan cross-border shelling

BAJAUR: Two children and a woman were killed while three others were injured when mortar shells fired from across the Afghan border hit a house in the Kitkot village of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur district on Wednesday night, security sources said. The sources held the Afghan Taliban responsible for the firing, terming it an act of unprovoked aggression. They said the Afghan Taliban had been trying to get a formation of Fitna al Khawarij to infiltrate into Pakistan during the past few days. But the attempts were foiled due to timely action by the army, the sources said, adding that the Afghan Taliban then resorted to targeting the civilian population in Pakistan. Fitna al Khawarij is a term that the state has designated for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP). According to security sources, the gun position from where the mortar shells were fired had been destroyed in retaliatory action by the army. They said that all posts of the Afghan Taliban near Bajaur were being targeted in the retaliatory action, during...

ISLAMABAD: A police search operation targeting Afghan residents in Islamabad turned violent when officers were attacked, resulting in injuries to four officers and the arrest of 23 people who now face terrorism charges, authorities said. The clash erupted in the Sarai Kharboza area when residents resisted the operation, according to an FIR filed at the Golra Police Station. The report, lodged by Assistant Sub-Inspector Saqib Mehmood, alleges that a group led by a suspect identified as Mubeen abducted a police official, held him inside a house, and then set the building on fire. Attackers also snatched a submachine gun from an officer and opened fire with the “intent to kill,” the formal complaint stated. The 23 individuals arrested in connection with the incident are being investigated under multiple statutes, including Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act. A team from the Counter Terrorism Department has launched a wider operation to find and apprehend additional suspects who fled the scene, police said. In a...

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court temporarily barred law enforcement agencies (LEAs) on Friday from repatriating an Afghan family whose asylum case for resettlement in a third country through the UN’s refugee agency is pending. A bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad and Justice Farah Jamshed sought replies from the respondents, including the federal interior ministry, on a petition filed by an ex-serviceman under the former Afghan government. He was ousted from Afghanistan along with his family members, including his wife and three children, in 2021. The petitioners maintained they would face persecution if sent back to Afghanistan. Advocate Saifullah Muhib Kakakhel represented the petitioners and contended that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had recommended to the government to allow them to temporarily stay in Pakistan as their case for resettlement in a third country was pending. He referred to a letter issued by the refugee agency on Jan 27, 2025 for the petitioner. Advocate Kak...

The organized return of Afghan refugees from across Pakistan is ongoing, with hundreds of individuals crossing back daily through the Chaman Border.

The Federal Investigation Agency said on Sunday it has arrested an official of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) for his alleged “involvement” in issuing fake identity cards to Afghan nationals in Karachi. As per a statement by an FIA spokesperson, the agency’s officials conducted a raid in the Metroville SITE area, where two Afghan nationals were arrested and found to be possessing “illegal Pakistani identity documents”. The statement added that upon further investigation, it surfaced that a Nadra official, identified as Furqan Ahmed Khan Durrani, was “involved” in approving Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs) issued to the two Afghan nationals. Durrani was arrested in a subsequent raid carried out in Karachi’s Nursery area. The FIA statement said that action has been taken against the suspects under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947. It added that FIA has obtained a three-day physical remand of the “arrested suspects” and further investigation wa...

Sarfraz Bugti has said that Afghanistan remains a brotherly nation, but urged Afghan nationals to refrain from violence in Pakistan.

PESHAWAR: Repatriation of undocumented Afghan nationals was abruptly suspended on Friday after a border security official was injured in a late evening cross-border attack from the Afghan side on Thursday. The Torkham border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan was reopened on Thursday for the return of stranded and illegal Afghan nationals, after having remained closed since February 26 with the launch of Operation Ghazab lil-Haq. However, security officials at Torkham said local paramilitary forces went on high alert due to the injury of an FC official at the Awal Khan post near the border. The incident took place around 9:30pm on Thursday evening. Sources at Torkham and the Hamza Baba transit point said that although the entire staff of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), National Logistics Corporation (NLC), police and other government departments was present at the transit point and Torkham, they were directed to immediately stop the regi...

KHYBER: The dead body of an Afghan national, lying at Zero Point on the Torkham border for the past several days, was finally handed over to Afghan authorities by a delegation of local tribal elders on Thursday. The development comes a day after Pakistan announced that it had decided on a “temporary pause” in the ongoing Operation Ghazab lil-Haq against the Afghan Taliban in view of Eidul Fitr and “at the request of brotherly Islamic countries”. The dead body was spotted by locals, who had recorded videos and reported the matter to security officials. The delegation of local elders, comprising Malak Tajuddin, Mufti Ejaz, Shah Khalid, Qari Jihad Shah, Qari Nazeem Gul and Saeed Khan, visited the Torkham border to retrieve the body. Khalid, told Dawn that the delegation remained in contact with the local security officials and Afghan delegates during the last week despite the security situation. He said that their Afghan counterparts on March 13 had acknowledged that the dead man was an Afghan national and a dai...

Pakistan flags rising terrorism from Afghan soil

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Saturday rubbished claims by the Afghan Taliban regarding the capture of a military post, saying it was “designed to mislead internal public opinion” in the neighbouring country. In a post on the social media platform X, the ministry’s fact-checking account posted a photo of a post by the Afghan Ministry of Defence, which claimed that a Pakistani military outpost was captured while 14 soldiers were martyred. In response, the ministry said, “This latest claim of the so-called Ministry of Defence of the Afghan Taliban Regime regarding capturing some post and made-up damages etc, is false as always, fabricated and designed to mislead Afghan internal public opinion, which are unfortunately first-hand experiencing and suffering under these terror sponsors.” It said that damages and losses incurred by the “master proxy Afghan Taliban and their extension Fitna al Khawarij” were being regularly updated by the ministry. Fitna al Khawarij is a term the state uses for terr...

Police on Tuesday continued their crackdown against illegally residing Afghan nationals in the city, arresting 57 individuals during search operations conducted over the past 24 hours.

Multiple videos have been circulating on social media platform X since February 27, claiming to show Afghan BM-21 rocket strikes, launched from the Alishero border district, targeting Pakistani military installations. However, the videos are unrelated to the current situation and are old. Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq against the Afghan Taliban, after the neighbouring country opened fire on multiple locations across the border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on late Thursday. Authorities in Kabul had called it a response to Pakistani strikes against terrorist hideouts on Afghan soil over the weekend. On Feb 27, a pro-Indian account on X shared a video of buildings set on fire. “Afghan BM-21 rocket strikes have begun from areas of Alishero district targeting Pakistani military installations across the so-called (imaginary) border… look what’s happened,” reads the caption. The post gained 100,800 views. Another pro-Indian account shared the same video with the caption: “Reports of BM 21 rocket strikes from A...

Multiple Indian and Afghan users on social media platform X shared visuals on February 27, claiming that Afghan forces shot down a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet amid the current conflict between the two countries. However, the visuals are doctored. The iVerify Pakistan team investigated this content and determined that it is false. To reach this conclusion, iVerify Pakistan analysed the visuals for discrepancies, verified aircraft serial records and ran the content through multiple AI-detection tools. Multiple Indian and Afghan users on social media platform X shared visuals on February 27, claiming that Afghan forces shot down a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet amid the current conflict between the two countries. However, the visuals are doctored. Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq against the Afghan Taliban, after the neighbouring country opened fire on multiple locations across the border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on February 26. Authorities in Kabul had called it a response to Pakistani strikes against terrori...

PESHAWAR: Pakistan’s security forces carried out a robust retaliatory response following unprovoked aggression by Afghan Taliban in the border areas of South Waziristan Lower, security sources said on Friday. According to officials, an intense exchange of fire continued throughout the night along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. However, the situation has since calmed after the firing subsided by morning. Security sources stated that the Pakistan Army responded swiftly and in a coordinated manner by targeting multiple Afghan Taliban checkposts located across the border in Afghanistan’s Paktia province. During the operation, Pakistani forces reportedly took control of five key Afghan checkposts and raised the national flag at the captured locations. Among the posts brought under control were two opposite Shawal, two facing the Angoor Adda sector, and one located opposite Zarmilan, security sources confirmed. The operation, officials said, was aimed at restoring stability in the sensitive border region and effe...