Dar warns Afghan Taliban they will pay for sheltering terrorists

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar warned on Monday that the Afghan Taliban regime would eventually face the consequences of failing to act against terrorists on its soil, and defended the emergency imposed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as a step against terrorism, not a political move.

“If the Afghan government does not take action against terrorists, one day it will have to face the consequences itself,” Dar told an Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) conference on Pakistan’s terrorism landscape, Geo News reported.

“Only one demand”

“Pakistan has only one demand from Afghanistan: that it should not allow its territory to be used for terrorism,” Dar said. He said Pakistan had held talks and made visits, including a trilateral meeting with China and Afghanistan in Kabul in August last year, but the Taliban had failed to keep their commitments.

He urged the Taliban to stop giving terrorists weapons and other help, and warned that safe havens used against Pakistan could one day threaten other countries too.

Dar also said:

• Lives lost: Pakistan has sacrificed more than 90,000 lives in the war against terrorism
• India’s role: India was involved in supporting terrorism in Pakistan, citing the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav
• Daily operations: operations against terrorists were being carried out every day on the instructions of Field Marshal Asim Munir
• Border: attacks had led to the closure of the Pak-Afghan border, though Pakistan allowed 1,000 containers through after a UN request
• Help needed: recognition of Pakistan’s sacrifices was not enough, and the world should help strengthen its law enforcement agencies

“It is not a political move”

At a seminar later, Dar defended the emergency and governor’s rule in KP. “It is not a political move; it is surely against the menace of terrorism which that province has been hit with in the past decade and a half,” he said, Dawn reported. The government “had no choice”, he said, and would implement the measures “in totality”.

Tarar: “not weakness”

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Pakistan wanted peaceful coexistence with Afghanistan, but its desire for peace must not be “misconstrued as weakness”. Citing UN and independent assessments, he said more than 6,000 TTP terrorists were in Afghanistan, out of more than 20,000 terrorists in total. He said Pakistan had hosted over four million Afghan refugees for four decades, and that its economic losses from terrorism exceeded $100 billion.

The numbers behind the warning

Pakistan recorded 225 militant attacks in September, its highest monthly total in 12 years, up 13 percent from August, according to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies. A UN monitoring report covering December 2025 to June 2026 found that the Taliban’s continued support for the TTP had contributed to more frequent and deadlier attacks in Pakistan.

Why it matters

Pakistan’s message to Kabul is hardening, and the government is linking its tough steps at home to the threat from across the border. Read our reports on Pakistan’s statement at the Moscow talks and on the KP emergency.

This article draws on reporting by Geo News and Dawn.