SCO Leaders To Gather In Moscow For Two-Day Summit

Responding on Sunday to a question about Iran’s offer to host a regional meeting aimed at easing tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi said Pakistan appreciates the initiative.

He described Iran as a “brotherly, friendly country” and said Pakistan consistently supports resolving disputes through dialogue and diplomacy. Andrabi said Iran could play an important role in efforts to address cross-border militancy.

He added that mediation is usually resisted by parties with a weak political or legal position, but argued that Pakistan’s case regarding terrorism originating from Afghanistan is “very strong.”

Relations between the Taliban and Pakistan have deteriorated in recent weeks amid disputes over Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Pakistani airstrikes. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi recently announced plans for a regional meeting to help de-escalate tensions.

Earlier this month, a third round of talks between Pakistan and the Taliban in Istanbul ended without progress, with negotiators failing to reach agreement on steps to curb cross-border militancy. The talks were initiated after border clashes between the two sides in October.

The tensions have drawn in other regional actors as well. Türkiye’s president and several neighbouring leaders have previously urged both sides to resolve their disagreements through dialogue.

The agency says 100,971 Afghans were detained between 1 January and 8 November 2025, compared with just 9,066 during the same period last year.

The report notes that before 2023, no regular data was collected on the arrest of Afghan Citizen Card holders or undocumented Afghans in Pakistan. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) began monitoring these figures in January 2023.

According to the findings, around 13,380 Afghans were arrested between 2 and 8 November alone, a 72 percent increase from the previous week. Of those detained, 76 percent were undocumented migrants or Afghan Citizen Card holders, while 24 percent were registered refugees with Proof of Registration (PoR) cards. The highest number of arrests was recorded in Quetta, Balochistan, and in Attock district in Punjab.

UNHCR and IOM also reported that 55,768 Afghans returned to Afghanistan through the Torkham, Ghulam Khan, Chaman, Badini and Bahramcha border crossings between 2 and 8 November. This reflects a 49 percent rise in voluntary returns and a 75 percent increase in deportations compared with the previous week.

The report says that from 1 April to the present, 869,448 Afghans have returned to Afghanistan, 13 percent of whom were forcibly deported. Fear of arrest is cited as the primary reason for returning among undocumented Afghans, Afghan Citizen Card holders and even some registered refugees.

Pakistan began identifying and deporting Afghans without valid documents two years ago, but the process has sharply intensified following recent border clashes between Taliban and Pakistani forces.

The ministry also reported that access to 3G internet services has grown from 6.2 million to 6.8 million users, while 4G service coverage has expanded from 1.6 million to 6.9 million users.

The announcement comes despite the Taliban’s decision last month to shut down telecommunications services nationwide for three consecutive days. The group had also previously cut fibre-optic internet services in several provinces. The disruptions severely affected banking, customs operations, trade, healthcare, education, aviation, transport and daily life.

The Taliban says it has invested 12 billion afghanis in the telecommunications sector over the past four years. According to the ministry, more than 22 million SIM cards have been re-registered nationwide and more than 1,400 new telecom sites have been activated.

Despite these claims, Afghanistan continues to have some of the slowest and most expensive internet services in the world.

Speaking to reporters at an event in Tehran, Araghchi said Iran had recently engaged in efforts to mediate and stabilise relations between Islamabad and the Taliban. He said the proposed regional meeting would be part of those broader initiatives.

He said Iran had held a series of telephone contacts in recent days and hoped the efforts would produce “significant results.” He did not clarify which countries might be invited or where the meeting would be held.

Ties between the Taliban and Pakistan have deteriorated in recent weeks amid disputes over Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan territory. The two sides have held three rounds of talks mediated by Qatar and Türkiye, but the negotiations have ended without progress.

Last week, the Taliban said Pakistan had asked Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada to issue a religious decree condemning the conflict in Pakistan. The Taliban responded that issuing fatwas falls under the authority of the Dar al-Ifta institutions, not the Taliban leader personally.

Pakistan has long accused the Afghan Taliban of supporting Pakistani militants involved in the insurgency against the state, an allegation the Taliban denies.

Demonstrators called for the immediate reopening of the key transit point, saying the prolonged closure has inflicted heavy losses on the economies of both Afghanistan and Pakistan and has left thousands of people unemployed. They warned that factories in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were now at risk of shutting down due to the disruption in cross-border trade.

Protesters said the closure had severely damaged the agriculture, trade and transport sectors, with Pakistan’s economy bearing the greatest losses. One participant said that even during wartime, trade routes typically remained open, adding that the current situation had driven people deeper into hunger and poverty.

The demonstrators warned that if the closure continues and economic pressures intensify, the security situation in the region is likely to deteriorate. They urged Pakistani authorities to take concrete steps to resolve the impasse and called on the Afghan Taliban to address disputes through dialogue.

Torkham and several other border crossings were closed to commercial and passenger traffic last month following deadly clashes between Pakistani forces and the Afghan Taliban. The shutdown has led to sharp increases in the price of imported goods in both countries.

Pakistani officials have previously said that under normal circumstances, the Torkham crossing alone facilitates more than US$3 million in daily trade, including about US$2 million in exports and roughly US$900,000 in imports.