Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has claimed that about 80% of those involved in the country’s current wave of militant violence were entering from Afghanistan, renewing Islamabad’s claims that Afghanistan’s territory is being used for attacks inside Pakistan.
Naqvi made the remarks Tuesday during a debate in Pakistan’s Senate, as lawmakers discussed security and political tensions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He said Pakistan had not sought to associate militancy with the Pashtun community or any particular tribe, arguing that the government’s concern was with militants crossing the border from Afghanistan.
“We have never raised the name of Pashtuns,” Naqvi said, according to accounts of his remarks. “We have always said that people are coming from Afghanistan.”
Naqvi said Pakistani authorities often did not know the tribal background or identity of those crossing the border, but described them as militants coming from the Afghan side.
Pakistani reports of his Senate remarks said Naqvi estimated that around 80% of those involved in the current wave of terrorism were coming from Afghanistan. He did not publicly present evidence supporting the figure during the remarks covered by the reports.
Pakistani officials have made similar claims in recent months as militant attacks have intensified, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Pakistani officials said earlier this month that Afghan nationals had carried out 37 suicide attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the past two years. They also said 14 suicide attacks had occurred in the province so far this year and claimed Afghan nationals were responsible for most of them.
Naqvi has previously linked attacks in Pakistan to Afghanistan. Following two suicide attacks in November 2025, he told parliament that the attackers were Afghan nationals and described their involvement as a major security concern for Pakistan.
Pakistani authorities have repeatedly called on Taliban authorities to prevent Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, and other armed groups from using Afghan territory to plan and carry out attacks across the border.
Taliban authorities have rejected Pakistan’s allegations that they allow Afghan territory to be used against neighboring countries and have said Pakistan’s security problems are an internal matter.
The dispute over militancy has become a major source of tension between Taliban authorities and Pakistan, alongside disagreements over border security and Islamabad’s deportation of Afghan migrants.
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