Former Afghan interior minister Omar Dawoodzai has criticised comments by Pakistan’s army chief, saying the Taliban represent only a small fraction of Afghanistan’s population and should not be equated with the Afghan people.
In a Facebook post on Monday, December 22, Dawoodzai responded to remarks by Asim Munir, who claimed that most fighters of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are Afghans. Dawoodzai said that if Munir was referring to Afghans living beyond the Durand Line, the claim might carry some weight, but stressed that the Afghan Taliban make up less than 5 percent of Afghanistan’s population and do not represent the nation.
He said Afghans have repeatedly made clear that they harbour no hostility toward the people of Pakistan.
Dawoodzai, who also served as Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan, said Islamabad’s primary conflict is with the TTP and possibly with the Afghan Taliban, and that the issue should not be framed as a confrontation with Afghan civilians or used to target Afghan migrants.
He recalled that thousands of TTP leaders were released from Afghan prisons in August 2021, noting that Pakistani Taliban fighters once fought alongside the Afghan Taliban against the former Afghan government but now seek to overthrow the Pakistani state.
Dawoodzai warned that broad generalisations and the avoidance of responsibility would only deepen tensions rather than resolve them. He said the situation requires transparency, honest policymaking and an acknowledgment of past mistakes, not collective blame directed at an entire nation.
Munir made his remarks at a national conference of religious scholars in Islamabad on December 10, which were reported by Pakistani media on Sunday, December 21. He warned that Pakistan would not tolerate threats to its security or sovereignty from TTP fighters based in Afghanistan.
