Pakistan’s military has firmly rejected a recent United Nations assessment alleging that Afghan civilians were killed or injured in cross-border strikes, calling the report baseless and insisting that its operations were aimed exclusively at Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan hideouts.
Addressing a press conference, ISPR Director General Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said Pakistani forces had, between October 2025 and June 2026, targeted only the hideouts, training centres and infrastructure used by the TTP to plan and launch attacks inside Pakistan. He described the operations as acts of self-defence undertaken to protect Pakistani citizens from a militant network that continues to carry out cross-border violence.
The DG ISPR also questioned the credibility of the assessments compiled by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and allied rights groups, noting that much of the underlying information came from sources operating inside Afghanistan under the Taliban administration’s tight restrictions on free expression. He said such reports overlooked the sustained attacks carried out by armed groups against Pakistani security forces and civilians, as well as the toll of decades of foreign military operations conducted on Afghan soil during the broader Afghan war.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused elements within Afghanistan of providing safe haven to TTP militants, a charge the Afghan side denies. Islamabad has made clear that its cross-border counter-terrorism operations, aimed at protecting its citizens from militancy emanating from across the border, will continue as long as the threat persists.