Afghan | Pakistan

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...

Security forces carried out a large-scale, coordinated search and combing operation across Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Chakwal and Murree against illegal Afghan residents and individuals involved in identity and tenancy violations.

With women banned from most jobs in Afghanistan, an embroidery boutique run by 22-year-old Rahima Alavi is a surprising and treasured sight in Bamiyan. “Spring flowers, tailoring and embroidery,” reads a sign outside Alavi’s small store, which opened in January after a months-long search for work. “I really feel proud because I can support my family, my parents and three sisters. I can pay the rent,” said Alavi, who was wearing a burgundy coat that had a few pieces of leftover coloured thread stuck to it. This photograph taken on January 20, 2026 shows Afghan tailoress Rahima Alavi embroidering a scarf at her boutique in Bamiyan. —AFP Demonstrating her new skills, she guided material through her sewing machine to create delicate silk leaves and flowers. Alavi is one of more than five million people who have returned to the country since 2023 from Pakistan and Iran, which have been pushing back Afghans after hosting them for decades. Having grown up in rural Bamiyan province, where she helped her parents with ...

Pakistan on Friday reiterated its call for Afghan territory to cease being used for terrorism against neighbouring states, as the United Nations Security Council unanimously renewed the mandate of the Monitoring Team supporting the 1988 Taliban Sanctions Committee for another 12 months.

A peace committee member in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district was shot dead in a targeted killing near an Afghan refugee camp, while his cousin sustained serious injuries, the police said on Sunday. “The incident took place at the Afghan Refugees Camp in Domel tehsil, and the victims have been identified as Khwajatullah and Naseemullah,” the police said. “Both belonged to Gangi Khel.” The statement added that the incident occurred when Khwajatullah and Naseemullah were at a shop in Tehsil Colony to purchase groceries. “At that moment, two unidentified armed men arrived and opened indiscriminate fire on them,” it read. “As a result of the firing, Khwajatullah died on the spot, while Naseemullah was injured. The injured person was immediately taken to a nearby hospital, where he is currently under medical treatment.” In his statement to Domel Police, Naseemullah stated that the attack was sudden and that they had no personal enmity or dispute with anyone. District Police Officer Yasir Afridi said, “Investigat...

An explosion tore through a Chinese-run restaurant in a hotel in a heavily guarded part of Afghanistan’s capital on Monday, killing a Chinese national and six Afghans and injuring several others, including a child, officials said. The restaurant was in the commercial Shahr-i-Naw neighbourhood of Kabul that includes office buildings, shopping complexes and embassies, police spokesperson Khalid Zadran said. The district is considered one of the safest in the city. The Chinese noodle restaurant was jointly run by a Chinese Muslim, Abdul Majid, his wife, and an Afghan partner, Abdul Jabbar Mahmood, and served the Chinese Muslim community, Zadran said. One Chinese national, identified as Ayub, and six Afghans were killed in the blast, which occurred near the kitchen, while several others were injured, Zadran added. Videos shared on social media showed debris scattered on the street outside and smoke spewing from a large hole torn into the front of the restaurant building. “So far, we have received 20 people at our...

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office (FO) said on Thursday that Islamabad had no “bilateral dispute” with Kabul other than terrorism emanating from Afghan soil. “We do not have any bilateral dispute with Afghanistan except for this one issue. Terrorism emanating from Afghanistan is a major issue. So we need verifiable assurances, commitments that these acts will be stopped,” said FO spokesperson Tahir Andrabi during the weekly briefing in Islamabad. The FO spokesperson also reiterated Pakistan’s longstanding demand for Kabul to take concrete and verifiable actions against those involved in terrorism against Pakistan from the Afghan territory. During the briefing, the spokesperson clarified that Islamabad “does not wish to be hostile to Afghanistan” and Pakistan’s demand to Afghanistan “is very simple”. The spokesperson reiterated Pakistan’s demand for written assurances from the Afghan Taliban that the neighbouring country’s soil would not be used by Fitna-al-Khawarij — the term the state has designated for the bann...

The repatriation of illegally residing Afghan nationals from Pakistan is continuing, with the Ministry of Interior stating that a total of 682,141 Afghan citizens have so far returned to Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s Minister for Public Health Noor Jalal Jalali on Tuesday reached the Indian capital of New Delhi on an official visit, the country’s health ministry said. The visit marks the third by an Afghan official in the last three months, after Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and Industry Minister Nooruddin Azizi visited New Delhi. “The multi-day visit aims to strengthen bilateral health cooperation, promote the exchange of experience, and coordinate joint efforts,” said the Afghan health ministry. According to the statement, Jalali is to hold separate meetings with Indian officials, particularly health authorities, and take part in several organised programmes. “Discussions will also focus on capacity-building opportunities for Afghan health workers, the import of quality medicines into Afghanistan, medical equipment, and other related issues,” it said. The visit comes after the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan barred the traders from importing pharmaceutical goods from Pakistan. Ran...

PESHAWAR: The Pesh­awar High Court has temporarily restrai­n­­ed the admission committee for public-sector medical colleges from excluding an Afghan female student from the ongoing admissions process over her inability to produce an Afghan passport and visa. A bench comprising Ju­­stice Ijaz Anwar and Jus­tice Wiqar Ahmad issued notices to the responden­ts, including the vice chancellor of Khyber Medical Uni­versity and the cha­­ir­­man of the admission committee, seeking their replies to a petition filed by the student, Ruby, an Afg­h­­an refugee holding a Proof of Registration card. The petitioner has asked the court to declare the requirement to submit a passport and visa before admission as contrary to the admissions policy, illegal and discriminatory. She has also sought court directives for the respondents to call her for an interview after the final merit list is displayed and, if she secures a place on merit, to grant her admission to the relevant MBBS or BDS programme. She has also requested the cour...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called on the international community on Friday to urge Afghanistan to fulfil its international “obligations” and rein in terrorist outfits operating from its territory. The premier made these remarks while addressing an international forum in Turkmenistan, where he also held bilateral meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. During those meetings, he stressed the need for the rulers in Kabul to take “meaningful action” and “fully address” Pakistan’s security concerns. Pakistan, which has been grappling with the problem of terrorism for long, has been demanding that the rulers in Kabul take action to stop cross-border terrorism. But, the Afghan Taliban deny Islamabad’s allegation of terrorists being allowed to use Afghan soil to carry out attacks in Pakistan. The two sides also engaged in border skirmishes in recent months, following which a ceasefire was reached. Pakistan and Afghanistan have also held talks with the mediation...

• Pakistan ‘hopeful but realistic’ as over 1,000 scholars seek ‘necessary measures’ to discourage cross-border movement of fighters • FO says Afghan Taliban have failed to comply with past commitments, reiterates demand for written assurances ISLAMABAD: Amid concerns by Pakistan regarding the use of Afghan soil by militants to launch attacks inside the country, over 1,000 Afghan clerics recently passed a resolution apparently aimed at discouraging the flow of militancy from its territory to neighbouring states. The resolution, adopted by leading Afghan clerics, pledges that their country’s soil will not be used against other countries. In case of violations, the “Islamic Emirate has the right to take necessary measures against them”, it said, noting that Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada had not permitted any Afghan national “to travel abroad for military activity, so if anyone violates this… The Islamic Emirate must take necessary measures to prevent such people”. The resolution, though welcomed b...

The deportation of Afghan refugees from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is likely to pick up pace as authorities are moving to push out those staying in refugee camps across the province after the Centre criticised the KP government’s response to the issue. In October, the federal government denotified 28 refugee camps across the province during a drive to expel more than 1.3 million Afghan nationals with Proof of Registration (PoR) cards — the last category of refugees legally living in Pakistan without visas. The process was underway since September 1. A senior government official told Dawn that Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi had accused the KP government of “going soft on Afghan refugees.” “While all refugee camps across the province had been denotified, a soft drive was ongoing in KP to send them to Afghanistan,” he said. The official said the Pak-Afghan border was closed for new arrivals and trade, while it was only open for deportation and repatriation of Afghan refugees. In a presser last week, the interior ministe...

Pakistan told the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday that terrorism emanating from Afghan soil posed the “gravest threat” to the country’s national security and sovereignty. Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad made the remarks while addressing a debate in New York on the situation in Afghanistan. In his statement, he highlighted Islamabad’s concerns about security, humanitarian, and socio-economic challenges emerging from neighbouring Afghanistan. Briefing the UNSC on Pakistan’s counter-terrorism efforts since the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul in 2021, the ambassador said Pakistan had maintained consistent engagement with the Afghan Taliban, conducting high-level visits, facilitating humanitarian relief, supporting the transportation of goods, and announcing trade and transit concessions. Despite these efforts, he said, threats persisted, creating mounting security challenges for Pakistan and the wider region. “Afghanistan is once again a saf...

The United Nations called on the Taliban authorities on Sunday to lift its ban on Afghan women working in its offices, saying the restriction puts “life-saving services” at risk. Since the Taliban regained power in 2021, Afghan women have been barred from doing most jobs, visiting parks and beauty salons, and attending school beyond the age of 12. In September, the Taliban authorities began prohibiting women staff members from entering UN offices. “We call for the ban on Afghan women staff and contractors from entering United Nations premises to be reversed, and for their safe access to offices and the field,” Susan Ferguson, the special representative of the UN’s women’s agency in Afghanistan, said in a statement. “The longer these restrictions remain in place, the greater the risk to these life-saving services,” Ferguson said, adding that they violated the UN’s principles of human rights and equality. The statement did not say how many staff were affected, but UN sources indicated that several hundred women...

Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said on Thursday that a man arrested by the US police last week in Delaware after he was found in possession of a handgun, ammunition and written plans for an attack was not of Pakistani origin and was an Afghan. “He is not [a] Pakistani national or [of] Pakistan origin. He is an Afghan, spent a few years as a refugee [in Pakistan] and then went to the US, where he spent most of his life,” Andrabi said in a statement shared with journalists. His clarification came after several media reports, including those from Indian and American news outlets, identified the suspect as a man of Pakistani origin. A USA Today report said the arrested man, Luqman Khan, was a Pakistan-born US citizen, who was arrested on November 24. Similarly, reports by the New York Post and India’s Hindustan Times and Times of India, among others, also identified him as a Pakistani immigrant. According to a report by The Associated Press from earlier today, which also does not identify Khan as ...

An Afghan man has been charged in Texas with threatening to build a bomb and carry out a suicide attack, United States officials said on Tuesday, as the Trump administration vows a crackdown on Afghan migrants after a deadly shooting. Mohammad Dawood Alokozay, 30, of Fort Worth, allegedly made the threats in a November 23 video that he shared on TikTok, X and Facebook, the Justice Department said in a statement. In the video, Alokozay allegedly praises the Taliban and threatens to carry out a suicide attack on Americans. “Thanks to public reports of a threatening online video, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force apprehended this individual before he could commit an act of violence,” FBI Dallas special agent in charge Joseph Rothrock said. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said Alokozay “came into America during the Biden administration and, as alleged, explicitly stated that he came here in order to kill American citizens”. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted of making a threatening interstate commu...

Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Monday announced that Pakistan is intensifying efforts to deport illegal Afghan nationals from the country.

AFGHAN refugees return to Afghanistan after deportation.—Dawn/file ISLAMABAD: Afghan refugees, awaiting resettlement in the US, have urged the Trump administration to resume the programme, saying that they were living in Pakistan under extreme hardship and constant fear of deportation. The statement from the Afghan P1/P2 case holders came days after the US administration abruptly halted the processing of all immigration requests from Afghan nationals indefinitely after the shooting of two National Guard soldiers near the White House. “We, the Afghan allies and partners of the United States with completed P1/P2 cases, express our deep concern and urgent plea for assistance. Our cases were fully processed, and we were awaiting our flight dates when, on January 20, 2025, the programme was suspended without explanation,” the statement shared with the media said. “For more than three years, we have been living in Pakistan under extreme hardship and constant fear,” it said, while also condemning the Washington atta...