Pakistan Built the Taliban—Now Pays in Blood

Pakistan finds itself at war with the very militant network it spent decades nurturing, a strategic blunder now threatening its own survival as terrorists it once armed turn their weapons back across the border.

Story Snapshot

Pakistan’s Frontier Corps killed 16 Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan militants in March 2025 during a border infiltration attempt in North Waziristan
The TTP operates from Afghan sanctuary despite Kabul’s denials, exploiting the 1,600-mile porous border Pakistan cannot effectively control
Pakistan’s intelligence service trained and armed the Taliban in the 1990s, providing critical support that sustained the movement through decades of conflict
Since the Taliban reclaimed Afghanistan in 2021, TTP attacks inside Pakistan have dramatically escalated, creating an existential security crisis
Border communities face mounting violence as Pakistan confronts the strategic consequences of empowering groups sharing ideology and tribal ties with its enemies

When Your Creation Becomes Your Nightmare

Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence spent the 1990s building the Taliban from scratch, training Mullah Omar personally and deploying hundreds of military advisers alongside Special Services Group commandos. By 2001, Pakistan provided one of only three international recognitions of the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate. The ISI supplied critical oil, thousands of Pakistani Pashtun fighters, and strategic guidance that transformed a ragtag militia into Afghanistan’s ruling power. Now that investment returns as a curse, with Taliban-affiliated militants using Afghan territory to launch deadly incursions that Pakistani forces struggle to contain.

The March 2025 clash at Ghulam Khan Kallay in North Waziristan District exemplifies Pakistan’s predicament. Sixteen TTP fighters died attempting to infiltrate Pakistani territory under cover of darkness, their attack repelled by Frontier Corps units stationed along a border that leaks like a sieve. Pakistan’s military superiority means nothing when enemies exploit terrain, tribal loyalties, and safe havens that stretch across an internationally recognized boundary Pakistan itself struggles to defend. The body count reflects tactical success masking strategic failure.

The Border That Nobody Can Patrol

The Durand Line stretches 1,600 miles through mountains, valleys, and tribal lands where Pashtun communities maintain centuries-old connections transcending modern borders. Colonial British administrators drew this boundary in the 1890s without consulting the people it divided. Today, effective control remains impossible despite Pakistan’s military capabilities. The TTP understands this geography intimately, moving fighters and weapons through routes Pakistani forces cannot monitor comprehensively. Afghanistan and Pakistan both claim sovereignty over borderlands neither truly controls, creating a no-man’s land where militant groups thrive beyond governmental reach.

Pakistan’s historical relationship with Afghanistan began disastrously in 1947 when Afghanistan voted against Pakistan’s United Nations admission, the only country opposing. Afghanistan championed Pashtun independence despite the population voting overwhelmingly for Pakistan in referendums. The first border invasions occurred in 1949 and 1950, with major skirmishes erupting in 1960 that triggered Pakistani Air Force bombardments and diplomatic severance. Decades of hostility created conditions where trust remains absent and cooperation proves elusive, even when mutual interests demand coordination against shared threats.

The Enemy You Armed Now Arms Itself

The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan shares ideological DNA, ethnic heritage, and tactical methods with Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, creating deliberate ambiguity about relationships and sanctuary. While officially distinct organizations with occasionally conflicting interests, cultural and tribal bonds create natural alliances Pakistani officials cannot sever through military force alone. The Afghan Taliban denies harboring TTP fighters, yet documented evidence shows TTP operational capacity has strengthened dramatically since the Taliban’s 2021 return to power. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of providing tacit or active support, while Kabul maintains implausible deniability about groups operating openly within its territory.

NATO studies based on 4,000 interrogations concluded ISI support proved critical to the Taliban’s survival after the 2001 American invasion toppled their regime. Taliban leadership relocated to Quetta in Baluchistan, where Mullah Omar rebuilt the organization under Pakistani protection. By 2004, the reconstituted Taliban resumed warfare inside Afghanistan with Pakistani assistance, eventually outlasting American resolve and reclaiming power. Pakistan invested decades supporting Taliban resilience, never anticipating those same networks would enable groups dedicated to destabilizing Pakistan itself. The strategic contradiction now defines regional security dynamics neither country can resolve.

Consequences Without Solutions

Border communities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and tribal areas absorb the violence Pakistan’s strategic calculations unleashed. Civilians face displacement, casualties, and economic devastation as militant infiltrations and military responses transform their homes into battlegrounds. The humanitarian toll mirrors suffering created during the Soviet-Afghan War when millions fled to Pakistan, except now Pakistan generates refugees through conflicts its own policies enabled. Short-term military victories against infiltrators do nothing to address underlying structural problems that make such attacks inevitable and recurring.

Pakistan confronts an adversary it cannot defeat militarily but cannot ignore politically. The TTP’s escalating attacks since 2021 demonstrate organizational strength and operational freedom that Pakistani security forces cannot eliminate through border skirmishes alone. Afghanistan lacks capacity or willingness to suppress groups sharing its ideological foundations and ethnic composition. The United States and NATO, having withdrawn from Afghanistan, watch from distance without intention to reengage militarily. Pakistan stands essentially alone, reaping consequences of decades spent cultivating militant networks now beyond its control, threatening stability across South Asia with no resolution visible on any horizon.