Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has warned that the Afghan Taliban regime could eventually face repercussions if it fails to act against militants operating from Afghan territory. He made the remarks on Monday while speaking at the ISSI International Conference on Pakistan’s evolving terrorism landscape, held in Islamabad.
His comments came as Pakistan recorded its highest monthly number of militant attacks in 12 years during September 2026. Dar’s warning therefore arrived at a time of heightened concern over violence along the country’s western frontier.
Militant attacks climb for third straight month
Data compiled by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, an Islamabad-based independent research body that tracks anti-state violence in the region, showed 225 militant attacks across Pakistan in September. That figure was up from 199 in August, an increase of 13 percent.
The rise marks the third consecutive month in which militant attacks have grown. Pakistan has also seen a sharp increase in cross-border incidents, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021.
Dar presses Kabul on commitments and the TTP threat
Dar said Pakistan had repeatedly asked Afghan authorities not to let their soil be used for attacks against neighbouring countries. He stressed that Islamabad’s core request was simple: Afghanistan must not allow its territory to be used for terrorism.
He told the conference that Pakistan had held talks with Afghan officials and made visits to Kabul to discuss counterterrorism cooperation. He pointed to a trilateral meeting with China and Afghanistan held in Kabul in August of the previous year. However, he said the Afghan Taliban regime had not lived up to its promises on the issue.
Dar warned that the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militant groups based in Afghanistan posed a danger to regional peace. He urged the Taliban authorities to halt the supply of weapons and other forms of support to such groups without delay.
On domestic operations, Dar said counterterrorism actions were being carried out every day on the instructions of Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir. He added that Pakistan had paid a heavy price, claiming more than 90,000 lives had been lost in the fight against terrorism. He called on the international community to acknowledge those losses, and cited the Jaffar Express incident and the abduction and killing of workers in Balochistan as examples of the challenges the country faces.
India allegations and border closure
Dar also accused India of backing terrorism inside Pakistan. In this context he referred to Kulbhushan Jadhav, whom Islamabad says was a serving Indian naval officer involved in espionage, sabotage and terrorist activities. These remarks are Pakistan’s allegations and have not been independently verified in the report.
He said security forces and law enforcement agencies had confronted militancy with determination, but that the threat had harmed the country’s image and its standing abroad. To address this, he called for international cooperation to build the capacity of Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies, arguing that recognition of the country’s sacrifices alone would not be enough.
Dar described how militants cross into Pakistan through mountainous areas, carry out attacks and then retreat to safe havens. He said the serious rise in attacks had prompted Pakistan to close its border with Afghanistan. He added that, after contact from the United Nations, Pakistan later allowed 1,000 containers to pass into Afghanistan.
Calling the TTP a grave threat to Pakistan’s security, he said the militant groups were receiving external support. He cautioned that the safe havens used by these groups to launch attacks against Pakistan could eventually endanger other countries as well.
