Pakistan Warns Of Possible Military Action Inside Afghanistan After Islamabad Bombing

Muhammad Tahir Ashrafi said Pakistan must ensure that Afghanistan’s territory is not used against it and called for decisive action to protect national security.

“No enemy has the strength to challenge the faith and resolve of Pakistan’s forces,” Ashrafi said, adding that the army, backed by the public, is capable of maintaining security across the country.

He warned that militant attacks destabilise Pakistan as well as neighbouring states and could lead to serious consequences.

“Terrorism has come to your cities, but you are refusing to acknowledge the root cause of it,” Saleh said in comments posted after Tuesday’s suicide bombing in Islamabad, which killed 12 people and wounded 27. The attack occurred in the parking area of a judicial complex.

Saleh said that despite repeated warnings that have since proved accurate, Pakistani officials have responded with insults and accusations instead of reassessing their policies. He argued that Pakistan has failed to learn from its mistakes between 1994 and 2024 and continues to pursue the same strategies under new labels.

He said the roots of terrorism in Pakistan lie in what he called the country’s historic mistake of using “jihad” as an instrument of national policy. He added that Pakistan still does not classify the Taliban as a terrorist group, even though, he said, it is no different from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Saleh accused Pakistan of helping install the Taliban regime in Afghanistan by destroying the Afghan Republic from within, and said that instead of taking a moral stance and mobilising the international community to address the crisis at its core, Pakistani authorities have shifted to ethnic games involving Tajiks and Pashtuns.

He urged Pakistan’s leadership to examine its own internal situation and to use its political and military resources to counter the Taliban threat and protect people across the region, rather than repeating past policy failures.

In a statement posted on its official account on X, the NRF said the attack was carried out at about 10 p.m. on Monday in the Zanjir-e Charchab area of Khanabad district. The group said one other Taliban fighter was wounded.

The Taliban have not commented on the claim.

Afghanistan International cannot independently verify the NRF’s account of the incident.

The NRF, led by Ahmad Massoud, is an anti-Taliban group that emerged after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the attackers attempted to take hostages inside the military college but failed in their attempt.

The Pakistani military on Monday blamed the assault on Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), saying India-backed terrorists attacked the Wana Cadet College, adding that security forces killed two attackers and trapped three others inside the compound.

Pakistani security officials said the militants were receiving instructions from Afghanistan and had taken shelter in a building located some distance from the students’ residential quarters.

According to security sources, about 650 students were inside the college at the time of the attack.

The army called the attack a “blatant act of barbarism orchestrated by Khwarij from Afghanistan is in contrast to assertions made by the Afghan Taliban Regime claiming non-presence of these terrorist groups on their soil.”

Pakistan uses the term “khwarij” to refer to militant groups opposed to the state.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the ministry denounced the blast in the Indian capital and expressed condolences to the victims’ families, as well as to the people and government of India.

The reaction came as Islamabad on the same day was hit by a powerful explosion near the city’s judicial complex. Pakistani security officials said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.

No group has claimed responsibility for the Islamabad bombing.