Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has warned the Afghan Taliban of consequences if it fails to act against terrorism originating from Afghanistan, calling terrorism the biggest challenge facing the region and the world.
Speaking at the Islamabad Strategic Studies Institute’s international conference on Monday, 12 October, Dar called on the Afghan Taliban to immediately stop providing weapons and other assistance to terrorists.
Pakistan’s foreign minister said the Afghan Taliban had failed to fulfil its commitments on counter-terrorism. He said the presence of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militant groups in Afghanistan posed a threat to regional peace.
Dar said that Pakistan has only one demand from Afghanistan: that it does not allow its territory to be used for terrorism.
Referring to a trilateral meeting between Pakistan, China and Afghanistan held in Kabul in August last year, he said Pakistan had discussed the issue with the Taliban and that visits had been made to Afghanistan to discuss counter-terrorism efforts.
His remarks come after Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid responded to Pakistani officials’ concerns about terrorism originating from Afghanistan by saying that blaming Afghanistan was not a solution to Islamabad’s failures.
Mujahid urged the Pakistani government to address its internal crises and respect the rights of Pakistani citizens and politicians rather than engage in what he described as negative propaganda.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Information and Broadcasting Minister Attaullah Tarar has said more than 20,000 terrorists are currently present in Afghanistan, including 6,000 members of the TTP.
He claimed that militants were based in safe havens on Afghan soil and were receiving training in the country.
Officials from several regional countries and members of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation have previously warned about the presence of terrorist groups in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on 29 September that terrorist groups in Afghanistan posed a threat to countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry says no part of Iranian territory can be transferred to another country, calling recent claims about allocating land in Chabahar to Afghanistan a misunderstanding.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said at his weekly press briefing on Monday that reports suggesting part of Iranian territory would be handed to Afghanistan had no factual basis and stemmed from a misinterpretation of remarks by an Iranian MP.
He said the issue under discussion was helping landlocked countries gain access to ports and international waters as part of regional cooperation, adding that similar arrangements exist in many parts of the world.
According to Baghaei, no formal proposal has been made regarding Afghanistan, and the matter was only mentioned on the sidelines of a meeting.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman stressed that Tehran had merely said it would examine the issue and that all claims about transferring Iranian territory or sovereignty to Afghanistan were unfounded.
Baghaei’s remarks came after Iranian MP Mohsen Zangeneh said during a visit by an Iranian delegation to Kabul that around 10 hectares of land at Chabahar port and more than 100 hectares in its free zone could be allocated for Afghan investment.
The comments drew widespread reaction on social media, with some critics interpreting them as a transfer of part of Iranian territory to Afghanistan.
Zangeneh later walked back his initial remarks, saying no Iranian territory had been handed over to Afghanistan.
He explained that the proposal was intended to create opportunities for Afghan investment in Chabahar and the development of facilities such as a dry port to facilitate Afghanistan’s access to international waters, rather than transferring ownership or territorial sovereignty.
Local officials in Chabahar also rejected reports that land had been transferred to foreign nationals or a foreign government.
Chabahar port has in recent years become one of Afghanistan’s most important trade routes to international waters, with its significance increasing amid rising border and trade tensions between the Taliban and Pakistan.
At least 233 Afghan nationals have been executed in Iran since the Taliban returned to power in 2021 through September 2026, with the number of executions rising sharply in recent years.
Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based organisation, said five Afghan nationals were executed in the months following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.
The figure rose to 16 in 2022, 25 in 2023, 80 in 2024 and at least 84 in 2025.
The organisation also documented the execution of 23 Afghan nationals during the first nine months of this year.
This means the number of recorded executions of Afghans increased from 16 in 2022 to 84 in 2025, a rise of 425 per cent over three years. The 2025 figure was also about five per cent higher than the 80 executions recorded in 2024.
Iran Human Rights warned that its documented figures might not include all cases because Iranian authorities do not officially announce many executions. The organisation said only a portion of executions of Afghan nationals in 2024 were reported by official Iranian sources.
Afghan nationals executed in Iran have mainly been convicted of murder and drug-related offences.
In September this year, Iran Human Rights reported the execution of Afghan national Tourat Mohammadi on espionage charges. The organisation said he was executed in secret and that Iranian authorities did not inform his family beforehand.
Taliban response
Taliban officials in January 2025 asked Iran to provide a list of Afghan prisoners, particularly those facing execution, and to replace death sentences with alternative punishments.
The request was made during a visit to Tehran by a delegation led by Abdul Malik Haqqani, administrative deputy of the Taliban’s Supreme Court.
According to the Taliban’s Supreme Court, the delegation raised the issue with Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy judiciary chief for international affairs and human rights.
Haqqani asked Iranian officials to show leniency towards Afghan prisoners sentenced to death, citing Islamic principles and what was described as Islamic brotherhood.
Taliban officials also asked for a list of Afghan prisoners sentenced to qisas, or retributive punishment.
During the same meeting, according to the Taliban, Iranian officials said 1,500 Afghan prisoners were expected to be transferred to Afghanistan.
However, the report on the meeting did not provide a clear Iranian response to the Taliban’s request to replace death sentences with other punishments.
Families seek answers from Taliban and Tehran
The account of Ruhullah Hamidi, brother of Abdullah Tajik, an Afghan prisoner executed in Iran, illustrates the difficulties Afghan families face in following the cases of detained relatives.
Hamidi told Afghanistan International that his brother had been arrested about four and a half years earlier on drug-trafficking charges, which he denied.
According to Hamidi, Iranian authorities set bail worth 100 billion tomans for his brother’s release, an amount the family could not afford.
Hamidi also said his brother did not have access to a lawyer of his choice. After the family approached the Taliban embassy in Tehran, they were told that a request had been submitted for his transfer to Afghanistan.
Despite this, Abdullah Tajik was executed in Iran.
In another case, the family of Afghan national Mohammad Yousuf says he died in Iran, raising further concerns about the treatment of detained Afghans in the country.
Yousuf’s relatives told Afghanistan International that he worked at a factory in Iran and was arrested after a confrontation with people who had attacked the factory. According to the family, he was detained alongside another Afghan worker.
His family said they had not received a clear explanation of how he died and called for clarification of the circumstances surrounding his detention and death.
Iranian authorities had not responded to these allegations in the report.
Concerns over fair trials
Human rights organisations have repeatedly raised concerns about failures to meet fair-trial standards in cases resulting in executions in Iran.
Concerns include limited access to independent lawyers; the possibility of confessions obtained under torture and the lack of effective family or consular support for some foreign prisoners.
Iran Human Rights has also said in its reports that many Afghans sentenced to death lack strong family support networks and adequate access to legal representation.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA, said in a report published on 9 October that at least 2,003 people were executed in Iran between 10 October 2025 and 8 October 2026, an increase of about 29 per cent compared with the previous reporting period.
HRANA said around 95 per cent of the executions it recorded during that period were not announced by official sources.
World Day Against the Death Penalty is observed annually on 10 October.
The figures on executions of Afghan nationals in Iran come as many prisoners’ families continue to face limited access to case information and little notice about when executions will be carried out.
Shahabuddin Delawar, head of the Taliban’s contact commission, has ruled out political talks with opponents, saying negotiations would amount to recognising them as a party to Afghanistan’s conflict.
He also said the Taliban made no commitments in the Doha agreement regarding the formation of an inclusive government or the rights of women.
Delawar, a senior Taliban official, said political negotiations with opponents would give them legitimacy as one side of Afghanistan’s political dispute.
Speaking to Shamshad TV in Kabul, Delawar said: “We will not negotiate with them and give them the status of being one side of Afghanistan’s issue. We do not recognise them. They have already been tested, and we do not consider them a party with whom we should enter political negotiations.”
He added that only a small number of prominent figures opposed the Taliban.
Delawar, who was a member of the Taliban negotiating team in talks with the United States, said of the Doha agreement that the word ‘woman’ does not appear in it from beginning to end.
He added that Pashtuns and Afghans are so strict regarding the issue of women that they do not even mention women by name in meetings. How could we have raised this issue with the Americans?
Without giving a specific explanation for the ban on girls’ education beyond sixth grade, Delawar defended Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada’s order and said girls’ education would remain prohibited until “further notice”.
His remarks come despite comments he made during negotiations in Doha saying women had the right to study up to doctoral level and to work, and that the Taliban would remain committed to those rights.
Around three years ago, Delawar also said in several speeches that he hoped restrictions on girls’ education would be lifted.
He was later removed as minister of mines and petroleum and appointed head of the Taliban-run Afghan Red Crescent Society. Some reports linked the move to his earlier statements supporting girls’ education.
Under the Doha agreement signed by the Taliban and the United States in February 2020, intra-Afghan negotiations were expected to begin. The Taliban had agreed within the framework of the deal to participate in those talks.
Pakistan Information Minister Attaullah Tarar accused the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government of poor governance and called the party a branch of the TTP, alleging it spends provincial funds on protests instead of counter-terrorism.
Speaking at a press conference in Islamabad on Saturday, 10 October, Tarar said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had received 700 billion rupees through Pakistan’s National Finance Commission for development projects but had failed to strengthen the Counter Terrorism Department.
He said the provincial government had also failed to establish forensic laboratories or install “safe city” surveillance cameras in the merged districts and at entry and exit points across the province.
Tarar alleged that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was using these financial resources to organise political protests.
“You don’t even give half an hour to discuss terrorism in the province, but you organise six-hour meetings to spread turmoil and vandalism,” he said.
The information minister also accused PTI of keeping the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in difficult conditions in pursuit of the release of party leader and former prime minister Imran Khan, who remains in prison.
He said people in the province were facing poverty, inadequate healthcare, educational deprivation and a lack of infrastructure development and were, in his words, being held “hostage by terrorists”.
“From the very first day, this is my opinion that they [PTI] are the B-team of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan,” Tarar said.
He also accused the party of facilitating the return of people linked to armed groups and questioned how long security forces should continue clearing areas of militants if, as he alleged, the same individuals were later allowed to return.
Tarar accused the PTI-led provincial government of taking Khyber Pakhtunkhwa back to the “stone age” during its 13 years in power and of putting personal interests ahead of national interests.
He said the province needed peace, not politics.
Dispute Over Pakistan’s Policy Towards the Taliban
Tarar’s accusations come as Pakistan’s ruling parties have repeatedly criticised Imran Khan and PTI in recent years for what they describe as a soft approach towards the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
One of the main points of dispute has been efforts to negotiate with the group and proposals to allow some of its fighters to return and resettle in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
During his time as prime minister, Imran Khan spoke about efforts to bring TTP fighters and their families back to the tribal regions.
However, PTI figures have said that negotiations and resettlement plans were not solely the party’s initiative and that Pakistan’s military leadership was also involved in the process.
PTI has also accused Pakistan’s ruling parties of damaging relations with Afghanistan’s Taliban administration through their policies.
The party has supported negotiations to resolve disputes, while Pakistan’s federal government has opposed some independent attempts by provincial governments to hold talks, arguing that such matters fall under federal authority.
The UN says 1,415 children were killed or wounded in Afghanistan over three years, including 446 killed and 969 injured. The casualties included 1,094 boys, 310 girls and 11 children of unknown sex.
According to the UN secretary-general’s latest report on children and armed conflict, the Taliban recruited and used 557 boys during the same period, including children as young as 12.
Cases of child recruitment increased by 81 per cent compared with the previous reporting period, and all verified cases were attributed to the Taliban.
Around 80 per cent of child casualties were caused by explosive devices. The UN warned that unexploded ordnance and explosive remnants of war continue to pose a serious threat to children in Afghanistan.
The report verified a total of 4,582 grave violations against children. This represented a 38 per cent decrease compared with the previous reporting period, but the UN stressed that the decline did not indicate an overall improvement in the situation of children.
Most verified violations were attributed to the Taliban, followed by unidentified perpetrators.
Increase in obstruction of humanitarian aid
During the reporting period, 2,241 incidents involving the denial of humanitarian access were recorded, an increase of 189 per cent compared with the previous period. This was the most frequently documented violation.
The report also recorded 338 attacks on schools and hospitals, including 163 attacks on schools and 175 on hospitals.
The UN verified 24 cases of sexual violence against children, involving eight boys and 16 girls.
Seven children, two boys and five girls, were also abducted during the reporting period, with all of those cases attributed to the Taliban.
Restrictions and their impact on children
The report said Taliban restrictions on women and girls, including the ban on girls’ education beyond sixth grade, the morality law and restrictions on women working for humanitarian organisations and the United Nations, had disrupted the delivery of essential services and affected children.
Virginia Gamba, the UN secretary-general’s special representative for children and armed conflict, called on all parties to take every possible measure to protect children and to avoid the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.
She also called on the Taliban authorities to lift restrictions on women and girls, align the definition of a child with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and allow the United Nations unhindered access to detention facilities.
During the same period, 576 boys in northern and north-eastern Afghanistan were separated from Taliban ranks and enrolled in reintegration programmes.
