Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry has said that Afghan forces open fire at Pakistani checkposts across the border to facilitate the infiltration of terrorists into the country.
He made the comments during a briefing with journalists on November 25, a video of which was released by the ISPR on Friday evening.
“Borders are always mutually guarded. Both countries [guard] them. Now, on the other side is such a country whose posts first engage your posts through fire, and an exchange begins. And then they have them (terrorists) pass through the gaps in between,” Lt Gen Chaudhry said.
The DG ISPR said one would barely find any “administration” on the borders in terrorism-prone areas, except in “hardly five to 10 per cent” of the areas.
“Go to Tirah, Khyber; you will not find any governance. Neither will you find any courts, nor any departments that deal with law enforcement and writ of the government.”
The ISPR chief also pointed out that villages and populations were “divided” across the Pak-Afghan border.
“There are 29 tribes here that are divided, whose population is here (Pakistan) and there (Afghanistan) as well. Right on the border. How will you control the movement there?” he asked.
He noted that many questioned how terrorists could infiltrate the Pak-Afghan border, how smuggling was carried out, and how non-custom paid vehicles were able to pass through if the army and the Frontier Corps were stationed at the border.
The military spokesperson then showed images of border fences. He highlighted that military posts were set up at a distance of about 15-25 kilometres from the border.
Noting suggestions for hermetically sealing the border, the DG ISPR questioned whether even the United States, with its vast resources, was able to do the same to its border with Mexico.
“What you call a fence has no value in military terms if it is not covered by observation of fire, because someone can hold and cut that obstacle to bridge it,” he said.
The military spokesman said building a security post every 2-5km and having drone surveillance would incur a “huge cost”. “You will have to invest in the infrastructure, as well as manpower,” he emphasised.
Speaking on the “terror-crime nexus”, the DG ISPR said cells of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on the Pakistani side provided support to this network.
Similar to the strategy he explained for terrorists’ infiltration, Lt Gen Chaudhry said there were extremely coordinated attacks on the army and FC deployments on the routes. “[They] attack the posts and have smugglers’ vehicles pass from below,” he said.
He further said that non-custom-paid vehicles were a part of this network.
“If there are 0.40-0.45 million non-custom-paid vehicles moving in your province, then why do you not stop them? Who is to stop them […] why are they not stopping it, why are they not checking it, whose responsibility is this?” he asked.
“The non-customs paid vehicles are part of this political-terror-crime nexus, are being used in vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices and by these terrorists in their movement,” the DG ISPR said.
‘Afghan side could not deny evidence presented by Pakistan’
On the Pak-Afghan dialogue that broke down earlier this month, Lt Gen Chaudhry asserted that Pakistan’s stance was “absolutely clear”, with Islamabad conveying that the presence of TTP cells, and their funding and functioning from Afghan soil, was not acceptable.
“We presented all kinds of evidence, and they could not deny that evidence. It was absolutely clear to the mediators, as well as to the Afghans there,” the military spokesman highlighted.
He said that Pakistan was even open to a “third-party agreement” that would detail a verifiable mechanism to combat cross-border terrorism.
He cited a report by the United States’ Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (Sigar) that said more than $7.2 billion worth of US military equipment had been left behind in the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Lt Gen Chaudhry said the Afghan Taliban had been unable to “convert” themselves into a state after 2021, and were now patronising various non-state actors, including those that were “country-specific and region-specific”.
He noted that Fitna Al Khawarij (TTP), Fitna al Hindustan, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Al Qaeda and Daesh were among those groups found in Afghanistan.
“We say that you need to act like a state now. […] They had said that ‘we will not allow our soil to be used for terrorism’,” the DG ISPR said, adding that the Kabul regime was not representative of the Afghans.
The military spokesperson recalled the promises made in the 2020 Doha agreement and asserted that Pakistan had been engaging with the Afghan Taliban since 2021.
“Our problem is not with the Afghans. Our problem is with the Afghan Taliban regime,” he added.
“Blood and business cannot go together,” he said, stressing that trade had been halted as Pakistan’s security was paramount.
During the same briefing, Lt Gen Chaudhry also refuted allegations by the Afghan Taliban that Pakistan had conducted overnight strikes in Afghanistan earlier this week.
“In our view, there is only one sort of terrorist which is good, which is a dead terrorist,” he quipped, adding that there was “no distinction” between terrorists.
The DG ISPR also highlighted statistics for the repatriation of illegal migrants, stating that 971,604 individuals had been sent back this year so far — 239,574 in November alone — compared to 366,704 people in 2024.
‘Delusional India wants to sell defeat as victory’
Lt Gen Chaudhry also spoke about India during his media talk. “We can’t do anything about a delusional mind,” the DG ISPR said, recalling the Indian army chief’s comments on the May conflict being a “trailer”.
“Seven jets were downed, 26 locations were attacked, and the S400 batteries were lost in that ‘trailer’. So, I think now he wants to watch a full horror film,” he said, adding that India wanted to sell its defeat as a victory to its population.
“Any country that provides any kind of equipment to the Afghan Taliban, saying they are giving it to their army, you can consider that it is available to the terrorists.”
The military spokesperson also highlighted that there were social media accounts based outside of Pakistan that were involved in inciting violence in the country.
Using social media platform X’s new feature to show the country a user is located in, Lt Gen Chaudhry highlighted certain handles that post about Balochistan.
He said the accounts were “doing politics inside Pakistan, and concocting a narrative against the state, against your army, against your leaders”.
‘Seems local population engagement missing in KP’
“All our governments and political parties agree that the solution to terrorism lies in a comprehensive National Action Plan,” the DG ISPR said.
He detailed that there were provincial apex committees chaired by the chief minister with 23 members, a provincial steering committee with 25 members, followed by a division-level monitoring committee, and then a district-level implementation body.
Speaking further on the non-kinetic aspects, Lt Gen Chaudhry said that the administration and the military had 140 engagements per day with the local population, including school visits and jirgas.
“The actual solution to terrorism lies in these, which the provincial and district governments ought to do […] We feel all this is missing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he said.
The ISPR chief also noted that 949 projects were underway in 35 districts, and that work was also being carried out on the Green Balochistan Initiative, a part of the Green Pakistan Initiative.
The military spokesman highlighted that the smuggling of Iranian diesel was a huge contributor to the “illegal spectrum, the funding of the terrorists”.
“Before the army, FC and the provincial government started this crackdown, permits were given for 20.5 million litres per day, or it was smuggled. We have brought it down to the current average of 2.7m litres,“ he said.
‘Over 67,000 IBOs conducted since Jan’
Detailing the counter-terrorism efforts, the DG ISPR said 4,910 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) had been carried out since November 4, amounting to 233 IBOs per day.
“The intensity of the kinetic counter-terrorism effort is going up,” he said, noting that 206 terrorists were killed in these operations.
Providing a breakdown of the security situation since January, Lt Gen Chaudhry said 67,023 IBOs had been conducted across the country since then.
Balochistan had the highest number of such operations, with over 53,000, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had over 12,800, and the rest of the country recorded about 850.
The military spokesperson said the country had witnessed 4,729 terrorist incidents since January, with 3,357 in KP, 1,346 in Balochistan and 26 in other regions.
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