Speaking to senior journalists on November 25 on matters of national security, the DG ISPR detailed extensive counter-terrorism operations and criticised the Afghan Taliban’s failure to prevent cross-border incursions and its continued patronage of militant groups.
Read: DG ISPR rejects Kabul’s airstrike claims, says Pakistan ‘does not operate covertly’
Lt Gen Chaudhry said that Pakistani security forces have conducted 4,910 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) since November 4, 2025, killing 206 terrorists. For the current year, a total of 67,023 IBOs have been carried out nationwide, resulting in 1,873 terrorists killed, including 136 Afghans.
He highlighted the extreme difficulty of managing the Pak-Afghan border, which is highly challenging and comprises difficult terrain, especially the 1,229 km stretch in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa featuring 20 crossing points.
A key element of the DG ISPR’s briefing was the exposure of a “very strong political-terror-crime nexus” operating in the border areas. He claimed this nexus is facilitated by the “Fitna al-Khawarij” and uses non-custom paid vehicles—of which millions are allegedly circulating—in suicide attacks within Pakistan.
“If non-custom paid vehicles are roaming around in your province, who is responsible for stopping them?” he challenged, stating that the illegal smuggling feeds the terror network. The crackdown on Iranian diesel smuggling has seen the daily volume drop from 20.5 million litres to 2.7 million litres, with proceeds previously funding groups like the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Balochistan Youth Council (BYC).
Read more: Army rebuffs Afghan air strikes claim as ‘baseless’
On the diplomatic front, the DG ISPR reaffirmed Pakistan’s clear stance regarding the Doha Agreement, demanding that the Afghan Taliban regime cease facilitating terrorists, whose leadership and infrastructure, including al-Qaeda and Daesh, exist in Afghanistan and receive arms and funding for use against Pakistan.
Pakistan is calling on the Afghan regime to agree on a “verifiable mechanism,” stating that Pakistan would have no objection if this mechanism were established by a third party.
He dismissed the Taliban regime’s claim that militants are Pakistani citizens who migrated and are “guests,” challenging them to hand over any Pakistani national to be dealt with under Pakistani law.
Lt Gen Chaudhry reiterated that the Afghan regime is currently harbouring “Non-State Actors” who pose a threat to various countries in the region, noting the Taliban’s failure to establish an inclusive state and government post-2021. He stressed that Pakistan’s issue is with the Afghan Taliban regime, not the Afghan people, criticising the lack of representation for all ethnicities and the exclusion of 50 per cent of women.
Also read: 2025: security forces conduct over 67,000 IBOs
Concluding his remarks, he emphasised that “bloodshed and trade cannot go together,” linking the closure of trade with Afghanistan to Pakistan’s need to protect the lives and property of its citizens.