Mohsin Dawar, the leader of National Democratic Movement and a former member of Pakistan’s parliament, has said that none of Pakistan’s attacks inside Afghanistan had killed Taliban commanders or members, questioning the military’s stated objectives.
“You go as far as Kabul and Kandahar in pursuit of the Afghan Taliban,” he said at a press conference in Peshawar. “But what about their centers in Waziristan, Peshawar, Islamabad and Lahore?”
Dawar accused Pakistan’s security establishment of maintaining longstanding ties with militant groups while publicly portraying them as security threats.
“All those people whom you now call terrorists were your strategic assets,” he said. “They were your assets in the past, they are your assets today and they will remain so unless you abandon this Taliban project.”
His remarks come as relations between Pakistan and the Taliban have sharply deteriorated over accusations that militant groups are operating from Afghanistan’s territory.
Pakistani officials, including military leaders, have repeatedly accused the Taliban of allowing fighters from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, to use Afghanistan as a base for attacks inside Pakistan. Taliban deny the allegations and insist the country’s territory is not used against other nations.
The tensions have fueled a series of cross-border incidents, including artillery exchanges, airstrikes and military operations along frontier areas since late February.
Pakistan’s military has intensified what it describes as counterterrorism operations targeting militant infrastructure linked to attacks inside Pakistan. Taliban officials and local residents, however, have reported civilian casualties from some of those strikes.
In recent weeks, tribal elders from border regions in Afghanistan and Pakistan have attempted to broker local cease-fires in areas including Kunar and Bajaur, amid fears of broader escalation. Local sources said some of those agreements were reached without direct Taliban participation.
Dawar, a prominent Pashtun nationalist politician and longtime critic of Pakistan’s military establishment, suggested authorities were misleading the public about the roots of militancy in the region.
“Perhaps you can deceive people elsewhere,” he said, referring to Pakistan’s policies, “but you cannot deceive the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.”
Neither Pakistan’s military nor Taliban immediately responded to his comments.
In one of deadliest incidents, 269 people were killed in Pakistan strikes on a rehabilitation center in Kabul on March 16, according to UN figures.
Analysts say the worsening dispute between Islamabad and the Taliban reflects the collapse of earlier expectations in Pakistan that the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan would improve border security and reduce militant violence.
Instead, attacks claimed by or linked to the TTP have increased sharply inside Pakistan over the past two years, placing growing pressure on the country’s military leadership.
