'Khyber-Pakhtunwala paying price in blood, sacrifices': Pakistan Army claims militancy increased post Taliban takeover

Peshawar: The Pakistan Army on Friday issued a stern warning to terrorists and their facilitators, rejecting the idea of engaging in talks with them to resolve the issue of militancy in the country.

Addressing the media here, Army spokesman Lt Gen Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry said, unfortunately, a deliberate plan was carried out in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to provide space to terrorists which has harmed the public and law enforcement agencies.

He talked at length about terrorism in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, presenting data to show that militancy has increased since 2021 after the Taliban takeover of Kabul.

He said that failure to follow through on the National Action Plan to eliminate terrorism was the main reason for the current wave of militancy in the country.

The NAP, a document prepared in 2014 following the terrorist attack at an army school in Peshawar, had 20 points to eliminate militancy. It was updated in 2021 with 14 points to tackle militancy.

“The number one point talks about using force to eliminate militants, but it is just one point about using kinetic force to tackle terrorism,” he said, adding that all other points are related to other aspects of dealing with militancy.

He said it was the responsibility of the provincial government and local administration to implement the other points, like improving law and order, developing a narrative, prosecuting militants and expelling illegal aliens.

“Governance and public welfare were deliberately weakened, and attempts were made to build a misleading narrative. The people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are paying the price with their blood and sacrifices even today,” he said, criticising jailed former premier Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, which rules the province.

Giving facts and figures, he said 14,535 operations had been conducted in 2024, which killed 769 militants and 577 security personnel and civilians, including 272 army soldiers, 140 police personnel and 165 civilians.

He said that until Sept 15, 2025, another 10,115 operations had been done, killing 917 terrorists and 516 soldiers and civilians, including 303 army personnel, 73 police personnel and 132 civilians.

The army spokesman said that the number of operations and rebels killed currently showed that the security forces were actively pursuing terrorists, but a lack of governance has created space for militancy.

He also targeted Afghanistan for failure to eliminate a safe haven, adding that Pakistan has been engaging at multiple levels to convince them to take action against people involved in cross-border terrorism.

He said that the Afghan nationals were involved in terrorism in Pakistan, and 161 Afghans were killed in Pakistan in 2024, and another 135 were killed while entering from the border. He said that 30 suicide bombers were Afghans involved in terrorism last year.

Chaudhry also blamed India for allegedly patronising militancy in Afghanistan.

Criticising the KP government, he said the provincial government failed to develop its counter-terrorism department, which has only 3,200 personnel and could register only 55 per cent of religious seminaries in KP.

“The concentration of terrorism in KP is due to the nexus between crime and militancy,” he said.

He also criticised the "political thought" advocating for negotiations with terrorists instead of operations.

"It is absolutely clear who is building the narrative for dialogues with those who killed our children and played football with their heads," he remarked.

Imran Khan has repeatedly said that talks with the militants were the only way to bring peace.

He said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government should rather work on protecting the people of the province instead of “begging Afghanistan” for security.