ISLAMABAD, 24 October, 2026 (Nosheen): Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has rejected former US special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad’s “baseless and misleading allegations” that Islamabad is arming former Afghan personnel to fight the Taliban or terrorist groups supporting them. In a statement issued on Saturday, the ministry’s fact-check account said Khalilzad’s assertions recycled speculative narratives and reflected an agenda-driven approach. It said conflating Pakistan’s legitimate counterterrorism operations against terrorist organisations operating from areas controlled by the Afghan Taliban regime with allegations of recruiting Afghan nationals or sponsoring armed groups inside Afghanistan was particularly misleading. The ministry emphasised that Pakistan remained at the forefront of the fight against terrorism and had made enormous sacrifices to protect regional peace and security. It also referred to successive United Nations monitoring reports documenting the continued presence and activities of terrorist organisations, including the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Al-Qaeda, inside Afghanistan. The ministry said Khalilzad’s allegations diverted attention from the Afghan Taliban regime’s responsibility to prevent its territory from being used by India-sponsored proxies to carry out terrorist attacks against Pakistan.

Khalilzad, who negotiated a US agreement with the Taliban that led to the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan, has previously made statements on Pakistan-Afghanistan relations and regional security. In November last year, Pakistan’s information ministry also criticised him for creating what it described as a false impression about the presence of the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) in Punjab, clarifying that a reported killing in Akhtarabad had occurred during a robbery-related incident and was not a counterterrorism operation. In March 2023, Pakistan’s Foreign Office had also rejected his unsolicited advice on the country’s challenges, prompting the US State Department to clarify that Khalilzad did not represent the Biden administration’s foreign policy. Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have remained strained in recent years, with Islamabad repeatedly expressing concern over cross-border terrorism. Tensions escalated further in September following clashes along the border, reported drone incursions and Pakistani airstrikes targeting what Islamabad described as terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan. Pakistan has maintained that preventing Afghan territory from being used for attacks against its citizens is essential to regional peace and security.