Washington, July 18 (IANS) Having Harboured terror group Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), Pakistan’s military has recently carried out airstrikes inside Afghanistan under the pretext of counterterrorism. These strikes targeting civilian populations are masked as security operations aimed at exerting pressure on the Taliban government, while projecting resolve to Western audiences, a report has detailed.
“On June 30, 2026, there were reports of cross-border drone activity between Afghanistan, which is under Taliban control, and Pakistan, centred on the alleged hideouts of the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), also known as ISIS-K or Daesh Khorasan. Such incidents have become more frequent in recent years as Pakistan has reportedly devised a strategy to counter the Taliban through other terror proxies in the region,” a report in US-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) detailed.
“These emerging links between the Pakistan military establishment and ISKP are also leading to increasing instability in the South Asia region. For four decades, Pakistan has been described by analysts as using the same playbook against India and in Afghanistan: Cultivate terror proxies, deploy them selectively, and then perform just enough counterterrorism theatre to retain international legitimacy,” it added.
According to the report, the available evidence indicates that Pakistan is extending patronage to ISKP – not out of ideological affinity, but as a calculated tool to pressure both the Afghan Taliban and Baloch insurgents. It warned that the development warrants international attention due to its potential global implications.
“To understand why Pakistan’s military would cultivate ISKP, it is important to understand Islamabad’s failure to maintain relations with the Afghan Taliban, which have collapsed since August 2021. Cross-border skirmishes between Pakistani and Afghan forces have grown in frequency and intensity. Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) launched over a thousand attacks in 2025 alone, inflicting casualties on Pakistani security forces across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. All efforts of mediation between the two countries, including the involvement of Qatar, Turkey, and China, have yielded no progress,” the report noted.
“Simultaneously, Baloch armed groups have stepped up attacks against security forces and major infrastructure projects in Balochistan, including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Chinese concerns about the vulnerability of their personnel and projects have been conveyed at the highest levels in Pakistan, placing Army Chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir under serious pressure to deliver results,” it added.
In response to rising militancy, the report said that Munir has adopted a “hard state” policy of coercion in both Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, further alienating Pashtun and Baloch populations and deepening the crisis rather than resolving it.
“Facing these converging pressures, the Pakistan security establishment resorted to the old playbook by ignoring legitimate political grievances and counterbalancing through new ties with international terrorist outfits like the Islamic State,” it stated.
Highlighting Pakistan’s backing to terror group ISKP, the report said, “The convergence of these patterns demands a clear-eyed response from the international community. Western governments that channel military and economic assistance to Islamabad must condition that aid on verifiable, independently monitored action against ISKP networks in Pakistan to control growing instability in the South Asia region, which could also have wider consequences for global security.”
–IANS
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