Pakistan refutes former US envoy’s ‘unsubstantiated’ allegations of arming Afghans to fight Taliban

The Ministry of Information on Saturday categorically rejected the baseless and misleading allegations by former US envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad of arming former Afghans to fight the Taliban and terrorist groups.

“Pakistan categorically rejects the baseless and misleading allegations by Khalilzad of arming former Afghans to fight the Taliban and their supporter terrorist groups. His sweeping baseless assertions merely recycle speculative narratives as part of his personal agenda to prop terrorism supporting Taliban regime,” said the ministry in a statement issued on X.

“It is particularly misleading to conflate Pakistan’s legitimate counterterrorism operations against terrorist organisations operating from inside Afghan Taliban regime-controlled areas threatening its citizens with allegations of recruiting Afghan nationals or sponsoring armed groups inside Afghanistan,” the ministry said.

It added that Pakistan remained at the forefront of the fight against terrorism and had made enormous sacrifices to protect regional peace and security.

“Successive UN monitoring reports have documented the continued presence and activities of terrorist organisations, including TTP and Al-Qaeda, inside Afghanistan,” the ministry said.

The ministry further stated that Khalilzad’s claims diverted attention from the Afghan Taliban regime’s responsibility to prevent its territory from being used by Indian-sponsored proxies for terrorism against Pakistan.

“Khalilzad paddling of such unsubstantiated allegations only exposes his skewed agenda-based views,” the ministry concluded.