ISLAMABAD: Pakistani law-enforcement agencies have uncovered what officials describe as a structured terrorist network operating from Afghanistan, with recent arrests exposing recruitment pipelines, cross-border training sites, and planned strikes on military and civilian targets, security sources said.
One of the key arrests occurred in Talagang, where authorities detained a man identifying himself as Qasim, alias Hassan, a member of the Daloozi tribe from Afghanistan’s Gardez province. According to security sources, the suspect admitted he had been recruited in 2025 by a Taliban commander named Armani at Sarha Darga.
“He told investigators that Commander Armani, along with a companion named Farooq, made him conduct reconnaissance of the army fort in Tajori for a suicide attack,” security sources said. The suspect also allegedly confessed to 20 days of training in Afghanistan before being tasked with carrying out a suicide bombing.
Security officials said the suspect claimed to have recruited five people for the network, receiving Rs10,000 ($34) per recruit, and later traveled to Punjab in September to enlist additional members before being arrested.
The detentions come amid Pakistan’s deadliest surge in terrorism in a decade, with violence heavily concentrated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan. “Attack levels recorded in 2024 mirrored those of 2014,” security sources said, citing internal assessments.
More than 300 attacks have already struck KP in 2025, according to provincial counterterrorism data shared with investigators.
Pakistani authorities maintain that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and affiliated outfits continue to use Afghan territory to stage operations. Security officials noted that Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi had previously stated that suicide bombers who targeted an Islamabad courthouse and a military cadet college in 2025 were Afghan nationals.
Security sources added that a December 2024 attack in Dera Ismail Khan (DI Khan) by Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan (TJP), a TTP-linked faction, killed 23 security personnel, prompting Islamabad to demand action from Afghanistan’s interim authorities.
According to the sources, internal threat assessments show a sharp rise in regional militancy since the Afghan Taliban’s return to power in 2021. Pakistan-based research cited by investigators documented a 51% increase in attacks in the year following August 15, 2021, while the interior ministry logged a 60% nationwide rise in 2023.
Terrorism-related fatalities in Pakistan have quadrupled since 2019, internal government data shows, rising from 365 deaths that year to at least 1,438 in 2023. Academic studies reviewed by security officials also indicate that average monthly TTP attacks tripled between 2020 and 2022.
A 2025 assessment circulated among Pakistani security planners concluded that the TTP continues to receive “substantial logistical and operational support” from authorities inside Afghanistan, with analysts noting that the group has adopted a more centralized command structure and operates from cross-border sanctuaries.
Security sources said the latest arrests offer the “clearest evidence yet” of an organized recruitment chain linking operatives inside Pakistan to handlers and trainers based in Afghanistan.
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