RASC News Agency: Military sources in Pakistan have confirmed that the bodies of nearly 50 Afghanistan nationals affiliated with Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), who were killed during recent clashes with the Pakistani Army across the border, were formally handed over to Taliban authorities in Paktika province. Local sources in Paktika further corroborated that Taliban officials collected the bodies from Pakistani border forces and transferred them to the province’s central hospital. According to the Pakistani military’s statement to local media, these Afghanistan nationals aligned with the TTP were killed during several days of heavy fighting in the Sambaza region of Balochistan, near the Afghanistan border.
Photographs and videos circulating on social media show that the bodies were transported by ambulances under heavy escort from Taliban military convoys. Sources close to the group stated that the bodies are currently being identified before being handed over to families scattered across multiple provinces of Afghanistan. Yet, in line with its characteristic secrecy, the Taliban leadership has refrained from making any official statement. Local Taliban officials in Paktika reportedly attempted to conceal the entire episode from public scrutiny and the press. Only ten days earlier, the Pakistani Army claimed in an official communique that it had killed fifty TTP militants, most of them Afghanistan nationals, during a counterterrorism operation. The military asserted that the deceased belonged to the faction led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur one of the most notorious anti-Pakistan commanders of the TTP, known for orchestrating devastating attacks against Pakistani security forces.
The transfer of these bodies once again underscores the entrenched presence and operational activity of the TTP inside Afghanistan under Taliban rule. This reality directly contradicts the Taliban’s repeated denials of providing sanctuary to foreign extremist groups. Adding further weight to these concerns, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar arrived in Kabul just days ago to attend a trilateral summit with the Taliban and his Chinese counterpart. According to diplomatic insiders, Dar pressed Taliban officials once again to sever their ties with the TTP and to take “genuine and verifiable action” against the group. Sources also revealed that the Chinese foreign minister, during separate meetings with Taliban representatives, expressed Beijing’s alarm over the presence of the so-called East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), composed of Uyghur militants, operating freely inside Afghanistan. The Chinese envoy reportedly demanded their expulsion, while simultaneously positioning China as a mediator between Islamabad and the Taliban.
However, the warnings carried a sharper undertone. According to those present at the discussions, the Chinese minister cautioned the Taliban that continued inaction on the TTP issue would force Pakistan to fundamentally revise its policies toward the Taliban regime and recalibrate its overall strategy on Afghanistan. Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Taliban of sheltering thousands of TTP fighters on Afghanistan soil. While the Taliban routinely deny these accusations, the evidence ranging from body transfers to video footage of TTP fighters operating in Afghanistan’s territory renders their denials increasingly hollow. Even as the trilateral summit convened in Kabul under Taliban auspices, Pakistan’s representative at the United Nations Security Council bluntly declared that the presence of some 6,000 TTP fighters inside Afghanistan constituted the “gravest and most immediate threat” to Pakistan’s national security.
International experts share this assessment. In its most recent report, the United Nations warned that Afghanistan under Taliban rule has effectively become a safe haven for transnational terrorist organizations. The report underscored that this environment risks destabilizing not only Pakistan but also the broader region, particularly Central and South Asia, where fragile security balances could easily be overturned by the unchecked militancy flourishing on Taliban-held soil.
