Act against terrorists or hand them over to Pakistan: ISPR

ISLAMABAD: Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lt-Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry on Monday said the Taliban regime in Afghanistan had only two choices: either take action against the terrorists present on Afghan soil or hand them over to Pakistan.

The conditions set by Afghanistan hold no significance and only the elimination of terrorism matters to Pakistan, the military’s media wing chief made it clear and added that drug traffickers were directly involved in Afghan politics.

In an informal meeting with the country’s top journalists, Lt-Gen Chaudhry again made it clear that there won’t be any talks with terrorists — a clear message to those who oppose military operation and advocating talks with TTP and other banned extremist groups.

Read more: Field Marshal in Egypt, for eradicating extremist ideologies

He said Pakistan’s response to the recent Pakistan-Afghanistan tensions was swift which produced the desired results.

The talks held in Doha and Istanbul revolved around on-point agenda — action is required against the terrorists operating from the Afghan soil.

“How they do it is their job. We conducted a counter-terrorism operation, and the terrorists fled to Afghanistan. Hand them over, we’ll deal with them according to the Constitution and the law.”

TERRORISM-CRIMES-POLITICS NEXUS

He also mentioned that there was a nexus between terrorism-crimes- politics and cited Tirah — a valley in Khyber district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — as an example where he said poppy was cultivated on 12,000 acres of land.

In this connection, the ISPR chief Fitna al-Khawarij — a term used for TTP — and Lashkar-e-Islam — another outlawed terrorist group were involved in narcotics business.

To prove his point, he regretted that some political forces start opposing action against the terrorists present whenever there is talk about any military operation in Tirah and other areas.

Lt-Gen Chaudhry noted that political, terrorists and criminals groups were an hurdle in rooting out crimes and smuggling. A large quantity of drugs were being smuggled from Afghanistan into Pakistan, he added.

Read more: Don’t evaluate Pak-Afghan ties on basis of business: Khawaja Asif

He noted that terrorists make between Rs1.8 and 2.5 million per acre through opium cultivation. “The entire population joins them, even warlords join in, and they all work together.”

KHAWARIJ IN POPULATED AREAS

Lt-Gen Chaudhry said people in Afghanistan want a genuine representative group, not terrorists [Afghan Taliban as their ruler].

The ISPR chief told the journalists that the Khawarij were rapid relocating to the populated parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from the border regions — a development which makes them easier for them to hide while difficult for security forces and law enforcement agencies to identify and target them.

Read more: Resettling terrorists resulted in rise of terrorism: Shehbaz

Pakistan is ready to safeguard its borders and people as well as independent to define the country’s policies, said Lt-Gen Chaudhry.

MADRASAS ARE MUSHROMING

There were 83,000 madrasas in Pakistan when the National Action Plan (NAP) was formulated in 2014, he said, adding that there numbers had crossed 100,000.

Amid the unending controversary of how to regulate these religious schools, the ISPR chief said registration of madrasas was a still remain big question.

AFGHAN NATIONALS AND TERRORISM IN PAKISAN

On the other hand, Lt-Gen Chaudhry also said that security forces had carried out over 62,000 intelligence-based operations so far in 2025.

These resulted in the killing of 1,667 Khawarij, he said, adding that 128 of them were Afghan nationals — showing how actively Afghanistan and the terrorist groups based there are carrying out terrorism activities in Pakistan.

About the recent Pakistan-Afghanistan skirmishes, Lt-Gen Chaudhry said over 200 Afghan Taliban and more than 100 Khawarij were killed in the process.

Answering a question about Pakistan contributing troops to the temporary international stabilisation force envisaged under the Gaza peace plan, the military media wing head said the government and the Parliament would take any decision on the subject.

FALSE FLAG OPERATION

Meanwhile, the ISPR chief also discussed India in the backdrop of growing relations between the Taliban regime and New Delhi.

He revealed that India was preparing for sea-based false flag operation and warned that New Delhi would get even tougher response, when compared with the May 7-10 Pakistan-India war, no matter what it wants to do from land, air or sea.