There's been a bit of a tit for tat going on between Pakistan and the goatherder barbarians Joe Biden left so much of our blood and treasure to in Afghanistan. It all revolves around an insurgent group that's been fighting in the mountains of the Pakistan/Afghanistan border region for decades.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or Pakistani Taliban is an offshoot of the Sunni Islamist, pro-Pashtun Afghan Taliban we are all so woefully familiar with (the word “Taliban” is Pashto for “students”).
...Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is an alliance of militant networks formed in 2007 to unify opposition against the Pakistani military. TTP’s stated objectives are the expulsion of Islamabad’s influence in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and neighboring Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in Pakistan, the implementation of a strict interpretation of sharia throughout Pakistan, and the expulsion of Coalition troops from Afghanistan. TTP leaders also publicly say that the group seeks to establish an Islamic caliphate in Pakistan that would require the overthrow of the Pakistani Government. TTP historically maintained close ties to senior al-Qa‘ida leaders, including al-Qa‘ida’s former head of operations for Pakistan.
Baitullah Mehsud, the first TTP leader, died on 5 August 2009, and his successor, Hakimullah Mehsud, died on 1 November 2013. TTP’s central shura in November 2013 appointed Mullah Fazlullah as the group’s overall leader. Fazlullah is staunchly anti-Western, anti-Islamabad, and advocates harsh tactics underscored by his ordering the November 2012 attempted assassination of education rights activist Malala Yousafzai. TTP since 2008 has repeatedly publicly threatened to attack the US homeland, and a TTP spokesman claimed responsibility for the failed vehicle-bomb attack in Times Square, New York City, on 1 May 2010. In June 2011, a spokesman vowed to attack the United States and Europe in revenge for the death of Usama Bin Ladin. A TTP leader in April 2012 endorsed external operations by the group and threatened attacks in the United Kingdom for its involvement in Afghanistan.
While the Americans were still tied up in Afghanistan, the TTP was kept in check through American drone strikes and joint Pakistani cooperation on their side of the border. After all, it behooved Islamabad to utilize every positive aspect of the American presence in the region and, if not rid themselves of their troublesome residents, at least knock the numbers down sufficiently to impede their operations against the government.
After the US withdrawal in 2021 and the Taliban's return to power, that dynamic changed. The conditions for the TTP improved measurably, and they took full advantage of their favored status to organize and grow.
This has begun putting severe pressure on Pakistan itself, beginning by terrorizing random civilian travelers and settlements, then with attacks against Pakistani border security patrols, and working up to much bigger targets in urban centers.
...Since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in 2021, the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or T.T.P., have grown into a powerful and well-structured group. The leadership has received financial support from the Taliban-run government in Afghanistan, and its fighters have trained and retreated freely across the border, according to Pakistani military officials and independent and United Nations experts. The Taliban in Afghanistan deny backing the Pakistani group.
“The Pakistan Taliban have been able to assert themselves, and the balance of power is starting to lean against Pakistan’s security forces,” said Asfandyar Mir, a senior fellow in the South Asia program at the Stimson Center in Washington.
As T.T.P. operations have grown more sophisticated, the group has more often targeted Pakistani police and soldiers instead of civilians, though regular people are still routinely caught in the crossfire. On Thursday, the group claimed responsibility for a car bomb explosion that killed at least 10 people on Tuesday, most of them civilians, outside the regional headquarters of a paramilitary force.
There were serious border clashes this summer between the Pakistanis and TTP forces as the Pakistani military launched an offensive in the border mountains in an effort to drive out the insurgent group.
...Terrorist attacks in Pakistan surged last year to their highest levels since 2015, driven largely by T.T.P. operations, according to the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, a research center. The attacks have made Pakistan the second-most-affected country by terrorism, according to a global terrorism index.
In response, the Pakistani military launched a large-scale offensive this summer in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region, a province that borders Afghanistan and where the Taliban have mostly been operating. The military has claimed the killing of militants every few days.
Most of whom skittered across the border into Afghanistan to wait until the fireworks were over. Naturally, this safe haven provided by the Taliban irritates the crap out of the Pakistanis.
...Strengthened by the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021, the T.T.P. has since consolidated splinter factions, absorbed Al Qaeda’s local affiliates and escalated attacks in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, using drones and American-made weapons and equipment abandoned in Afghanistan, including sniper rifles and night goggles. The group is also seeking to expand its influence into Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous, prosperous and politically powerful province.
“T.T.P. has become more focused on direct clashes and attacks on military forces,” said Pearl Pandya, an analyst at Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, which collects information on conflicts around the world. Pakistan has tried to avoid a full-scale military operation but has also been unwilling to engage with local grievances, Ms. Pandya added. “Its preferred approach of temporary, localized operations is unlikely to be successful in the long term,” she said.
The permissive environment the Pakistani Taliban enjoy in Afghanistan has infuriated Pakistani officials, who have accused the Afghan Taliban of being complicit in the attacks carried out across the border.
“We ask for one thing: Don’t allow your space to be used as a ground for destabilization inside Pakistan,” Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the spokesman for the Pakistani Armed Forces, said about Afghanistan in an interview with The New York Times.
But because the TTP has largely avoided causing civilian casualties, the Pakistanis were having a difficult time finding a way to curb the cross-border raids and carnage, as well as the fact that, once having been supportive of the Taliban and still having big trade and strong national ties, the Pakistanis were initially loathe to lay the hammer down.
But the government warned that the time was coming, especially after the TTP launched more attacks this past weekend.
...Pakistan was one of the main backers of the Taliban during its insurgency against the Afghan government in the early 2000s.
The two countries are also big trading partners and share strong people-to-people ties. Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghan refugees over decades of war, though has moved to expel many of them in recent years, citing the risk of terrorism.
But Afghan-Pakistan relations have soured amid an uptick in militant violence against Pakistan.
The TTP has re-emerged as one of the country’s biggest national security threats, conducting 600 attacks against Pakistani forces in the past year, according to a recent report by the independent nonprofit Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED).
Following Saturday’s attacks, the Pakistan military said while Pakistan prefers diplomacy, it will “not tolerate the treacherous use of Afghan soil for terrorism against Pakistan.”
Pakistan said on Sunday it had closed its two main border crossings with Afghanistan.
#BREAKING: Pakistan Army border outpost destroyed by Afghan Taliban Army in fresh Af-Pak border clashes. Many border posts of Pakistan Army decimated, Pakistani soldiers eliminated. pic.twitter.com/BNCASvJrBk
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) October 15, 2025
At least 12 Afghan people were killed and more than 100 others were wounded on Wednesday as the militaries of Afghanistan and Pakistan clashed along their border, according to officials, in the latest flare-up of deadly tensions between them.
...Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have dropped in recent weeks to their lowest point since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021. On Sunday, Afghan forces attacked Pakistani military outposts along the border in what they said was retaliation for airstrikes in Afghanistan last week that Kabul has blamed on Pakistan.
Both sides claimed dozens of casualties; they stopped fighting after Qatar and Saudi Arabia urged restraint.
But border crossings have since remained closed, and in the early hours of Wednesday fighting erupted again near the two main border crossings between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Pakistani Air Force was dropping bombs on Kabul as the Taliban were deploying drones for strikes at a Pakistani intelligence headquarters in Peshawar.
Meanwhile Afghan Air Force drone strikes secret Pakistani intelligence office in a plaza near Bala Hisar, Peshawar, targeting covert operations. pic.twitter.com/CYSToEtLQl
— SureshMaurya (@suresh_maurya_) October 15, 2025
The videos coming out of the region are just nuts.
The footage from Spin Boldak, Kandahar, where the Pakistani air force bombed the Taliban’s military barracks, resulting in dozens of casualties.
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 15, 2025
🇵🇰🇦🇫 pic.twitter.com/oeIL8WOxTp
Since much of what comes out of there is manipulated, it pays to be cautious with the more sensational claims, especially those involving 'captives.'
⚡️BREAKING
— Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) October 15, 2025
Massive airstrikes by Pakistan across Afghanistan, including on the capital Kabul pic.twitter.com/Hmr8GoMCoO
Baddaboom. This was an oil tank truck that they hit.
Big Breaking: 🚨
— IndiaWarMonitor (@IndiaWarMonitor) October 15, 2025
Scenes from Kabul, Afghanistan after powerful explosions rocked the capital amid tensions with Pakistan.pic.twitter.com/eGOgz2kbq5
This is reportedly a Pakistani government release.
BREAKING: Pakistan–Afghanistan tensions spike again.
— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 14, 2025
Pakistan releases thermal footage of a strike on a Taliban military post.
Pakistani drones reportedly fly over several Afghan cities. pic.twitter.com/NyNZetc2hZ
Obviously, despite all the airpower and hardware POTATUS left the Taliban, they have little to no anti-aircraft or defensive capabilities. The Paki AF should have never been able to drop at will in broad daylight the way they did.
As is routine with these flare-ups, a ceasefire has once again been declared. God knows how long it will last.
It's all hit, run, breaktime. Hit, run, breaktime.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to a temporary 48-hour ceasefire amid deepening hostilities between the former allies after deadly clashes erupted on the border overnight, according to Pakistani officials.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that the ceasefire would come into effect at 6pm local time (13:00 GMT). Both countries would make sincere efforts through dialogue to find a solution to the standoff, which was complex yet resolvable, the ministry said in a statement.
Exhausting.
There is word, as yet unconfirmed, that the Taliban's chief of intelligence was killed in today's exchanges. Two Pakistani journalists covering the conflict were hit, and one lost his life in the strikes.
There is also a conspiracy theory blossoming - check this out. The theory goes that these Pakistani strikes on Kabul are all the work of the Americans.
There have been these developments since Trump took over.
In his first term in office, President Trump accused Pakistan of offering the United States “nothing but lies and deceit.” He tried later to cool tensions, but officials in Washington kept accusing the country’s leadership of being soft on terrorism.
Now, in Mr. Trump’s second term, U.S. military officials have deemed a counterterrorism partnership with Pakistan as “phenomenal.” In recent weeks, the leader of its powerful military had a private lunch with Mr. Trump at the White House. And the president promised lucrative deals in minerals and oil — even though Pakistani officials are not sure where the “massive reserves” Mr. Trump talked about might be.
But it is clear that Pakistan has landed in Washington’s good books again, the latest turn in a relationship that has ebbed and flowed for decades. And it finds itself in a better position than its archrival India, which had nurtured ties with Mr. Trump but now faces U.S. tariffs of 50 percent. Pakistan came away with 19 percent.
“There’s a sudden warmth in the relationship that nobody was expecting,” said Maleeha Lodhi, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States and the United Nations.
That warmth relies in part on Pakistan giving Mr. Trump two quick wins early in his second term.
Which are leading spinning heads to theorize that the Pakistanis are softening up the Taliban to hand over Bagram for us. Many Indians already have their noses out of joint over perceived American preference for the Pakistanis.
Never mind that the TTP has been killing Pakistanis for decades - all of a sudden, even that war is all about Trump.
What a world.
