Taliban Condemns Pakistani Drone Strikes, Summons Envoy in Kabul

Taliban-run Nangarhar state television reported that the strikes hit the home of a man identified as Shahsawar in the Viala area of Shinwar district on Wednesday night. Local officials said the wounded were taken to hospital and described their condition as stable.

The Taliban said the victims were civilians with no ties to any armed groups. Officials have not stated where the drones originated.

On the same night, sources told Afghanistan International that a series of drone strikes targeted fighters from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Hafiz Gul Bahadur faction in Khost, Nangarhar and Kunar provinces. The drones were believed to belong to the Pakistani military.

The Pakistani army has not commented publicly. However, Radio Hurriyat, a Taliban-run outlet, reported that Pakistani drones carried out the attacks.

The demand followed a secretly recorded conversation in which Karzai allegedly described himself as Akhundzada’s greatest political threat, saying his presence could mark the end of the Taliban chief’s rule.

According to the sources, informants loyal to Akhundzada recorded Karzai telling a guest that “no political leader frightens Hibatullah as much as I do.” The timing of the conversation and the guest’s identity were not disclosed.

The sources said that after hearing the recording, the Taliban leader instructed officials in Kabul to tell Karzai he must leave Afghanistan. Karzai reportedly refused, saying Afghanistan was his homeland and he had no intention of departing.

Taliban Seeks to Silence Karzai

The Taliban have also pressed the former Afghan president not to comment on political or international issues, according to the sources. Karzai is said to have responded that he only speaks on matters of public good and national interest, not on the Taliban’s day-to-day affairs.

Karzai, one of the few senior Afghan politicians to remain in Kabul since the Taliban seized power, has repeatedly met foreign diplomats and travelled abroad in recent years. He has openly supported girls’ education and urged the Taliban to reopen secondary schools.

The sources said Karzai had resisted Taliban pressure to stop speaking about education, telling them women’s and girls’ schooling was not a “minor issue” and that he would not remain silent.

Dispute Over Kandahar Travel

Karzai has also sought permission to travel to his native Kandahar to visit relatives, the sources said. The Taliban set conditions: no public gatherings and the presence of a representative from Akhundzada’s office at any private meetings. Karzai reportedly rejected the terms.

Analysts view Karzai’s remarks about the Taliban leader’s fear of him through the lens of Afghanistan’s ethnic and tribal politics. Akhundzada is from the Noorzai tribe, the first member of the group to hold the country’s top office, while Karzai hails from the Sadozai and Barakzai dynasties.

In recent months, Karzai drew public praise for attending his children’s graduation ceremony in Kabul with his wife and family; an act seen as defiance against Taliban restrictions on men and women appearing together in public.

Karzai’s latest comments could increase Taliban pressure for his exile. The question remains whether he will resist the Taliban leader’s demands and stay in Afghanistan, or join other political leaders forced abroad.

The drones are believed to have belonged to the Pakistani military.

The first strike hit Surkakh village in Spera district, Khost province, an area known to host Pakistani Taliban and Gul Bahadur fighters. Local sources said two children were killed and six others wounded.

A second strike struck a house belonging to a man named Shahsawar in Viala village of Shinwar district, Nangarhar province. The house was hit twice, leaving two children missing and two others wounded, who were taken to hospital.

Residents also reported multiple explosions in three districts of Kunar province including Marawara, Sarkano and Dangam, all of which border Pakistan. Viala is also known to shelter TTP members.

Pakistan has not claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attacks. However, its forces have previously struck militant hideouts in Afghanistan. One of the deadliest incidents took place in January 2025, when Pakistani warplanes bombed Barmal district in Paktika province, killing at least 46 people. The Taliban said most victims were women and children. The Pakistani army said it had hit “TTP centres,” while media close to the military reported that several militants were killed and four operational bases destroyed. Taliban officials insisted the strikes hit “Waziristani refugees.”

Tensions between Islamabad and Kabul have risen since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, with Pakistan accusing the TTP of deadly attacks on its soil and the Taliban urging Islamabad to negotiate with the group. The dispute has escalated into border clashes and cross-border airstrikes. Pakistan’s defence minister previously warned that airstrikes inside Afghanistan would continue if militant attacks persisted.

The drone strikes followed months of rising violence. On 2 August 2025, Pakistan’s National Counter-Terrorism Authority placed the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group on its list of banned terrorist organisations. During a recent trip to Kabul and Beijing, Pakistan’s foreign minister urged Afghanistan and China to step up trilateral efforts against militants. Pakistani officials maintain that TTP and Gul Bahadur fighters enjoy safe havens in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

On 12 August, Pakistan’s army said it had killed 50 TTP fighters in Sambaza, Balochistan, near the Afghan border. Local sources reported that about 90 per cent of those killed were members of the Gul Bahadur faction, a group once linked to the TTP and responsible for multiple deadly attacks on Pakistani forces.

The strikes on Wednesday night threaten to strain relations further. After a period of political pressure and frozen high-level talks, Pakistan and the Taliban had recently moved to warmer political and trade ties. During his visit to Kabul, Pakistan’s foreign minister said the Taliban had pledged to help curb Pakistani militants. But in recent weeks, clashes between TTP fighters and Pakistani forces have intensified.

On 22 August, security sources said the Taliban transferred the bodies of 50 Afghan fighters affiliated with the TTP to the central hospital in Paktika. The men were killed earlier in Pakistani operations in Sambaza.

On the same day, Pakistani officials reported that at least 45 TTP fighters were killed. They said more than 30 died in Bajaur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, when an improvised explosive device being assembled exploded inside a mosque. Fifteen others were killed in South Waziristan.

At least five Pakistani security personnel and three civilians have also been killed in recent days of violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Officials said seven attackers were also killed.

Clashes were reported in Bajaur, Khyber, Hangu and North Waziristan. The Daily Dawn reported that in an attack on a border security post in Hangu, two security personnel and two militants were killed. The paper also reported that fighting in Upper and Lower Dir left five militants dead and seven police officers wounded.

In Lajbok Dara, militants clashed with police and set several police vehicles on fire.

The Wednesday night strikes appeared to be a response to the renewed wave of TTP attacks, which Pakistan says are directed from strongholds in Afghanistan’s border provinces.

Halvash, a human rights organisation, said the execution took place in Bandar Abbas prison. The inmate, identified as 28-year-old Nawab Popalzai from Afghanistan’s Farah province, had been convicted on drug-related charges after his arrest two years ago in Zahedan.

Under Iranian law, judicial authorities are required to notify defence lawyers at least 48 hours before carrying out an execution. Prisoners are also entitled to request a final meeting with family members.

Human rights groups accuse Iran of routinely violating these procedures.

According to Hengaw, another monitoring group, Iran has executed about 800 people in less than eight months, including at least 46 Afghan nationals.

Taliban and Tajik border forces exchanged fire with light and heavy weapons on Sunday in the Dawong area of Shahr-e-Buzurg district, according to sources. One Taliban fighter was killed and four others wounded. Videos obtained by Afghanistan International captured the sound of gunfire during the fighting.

On Tuesday, Taliban and Tajik officials met in Dawong for what was described as a tense exchange. In video footage from the meeting, Shafiqullah Hafizi, the Taliban’s head of mines in Badakhshan, accused Tajikistan of training 350 armed opponents of the group. Tajik officials countered with their own allegations that Afghanistan was sheltering militants.

Neither side has issued an official statement.

Sources said the clashes erupted after Chinese mining companies expanded operations in the area, damaging parts of the Amu River.

Tajikistan has hosted members of the National Resistance Front and other Taliban opponents in recent years, further straining ties between the two neighbours.