Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Mohsin Naqvi, on Saturday visited Wana Military College in South Waziristan, where an attack last week left at least three people dead.
During the visit, he said local residents were not responsible for Pakistan’s security problems, adding that militants crossing the Durand Line were behind recent violence.
Naqvi said the primary threat to Pakistan’s security came from individuals entering the country from the Afghan side of the border. He said the attackers in both the Wana incident and the recent suicide bombing in Islamabad had come from outside Pakistan, insisting that local communities were not involved.
At least 12 people were killed and 27 wounded on Tuesday in a suicide attack near the Islamabad Judicial Complex. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter faction of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility.
On Monday, gunmen attacked Wana Military College in South Waziristan, killing at least three people. Naqvi said both attacks were carried out with the involvement of Afghan nationals.
Speaking to tribal elders at the Wana campus, he said senior Pakistani officials, including himself, the foreign minister and the defence minister, had already raised the issue of cross-border militancy with the Afghan Taliban. He said Islamabad had repeatedly urged the Taliban to act against groups using Afghan territory to threaten Pakistan’s security.
Naqvi reiterated that local residents were not implicated in recent attacks, adding that none of the recent incidents had been carried out by Pakistani citizens.
In recent weeks, senior Pakistani officials and Taliban representatives have met three times in Qatar and Turkiye, though the discussions have produced no breakthrough. Pakistan has called on the Taliban to curb militant activity affecting its territory, while the Taliban argue that Pakistan’s security challenges are internal matters and that they lack the capacity to address them.
Relations between Islamabad and the Taliban government remain tense. Trade and transit routes between the two countries have been closed for more than a month, with no indication of reopening or a return to normal ties.
