Islamabad has firmly dismissed claims by former United States envoy Zalmay Khalilzad that Pakistan is arming Afghans to fight the Taliban administration in Afghanistan, describing the allegations as baseless and misleading.
The response came in a fact-check issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on X on Saturday, after Khalilzad pointed to reports that Pakistan was supplying weapons to Afghans and recruiting Afghan nationals to take on anti-Pakistan insurgents. He had also suggested that relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan were likely to worsen further.
The ministry said the claims simply recycled speculative narratives and reflected a personal agenda aimed at bolstering the Afghan Taliban regime, which it accused of supporting terrorism.
It argued that it was particularly misleading to equate Pakistan’s legitimate counter-terrorism operations against groups operating from areas under Taliban control with recruiting Afghan nationals or sponsoring armed groups inside Afghanistan.
Pakistan, the statement said, remains at the forefront of the fight against terrorism and has made enormous sacrifices to protect regional peace and security.
The ministry pointed to successive United Nations monitoring reports documenting the continued presence and activities of terrorist organisations, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Al-Qaeda, inside Afghanistan.
It added that Khalilzad’s allegations diverted attention from the Taliban administration’s responsibility to prevent its territory from being used by India-sponsored proxies to carry out attacks against Pakistan.
Islamabad has repeatedly urged Kabul to take effective action against groups using Afghan soil to launch cross-border attacks, and has consistently maintained that India backs militant groups operating from Afghan territory. Pakistan has faced a surge in terrorist activity, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
