Pakistan's proxy turns predator: Taliban war engulfs its former patron

In October 2025, Pakistan launched a wave of airstrikes deep into Afghan territory, claiming to target militants of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Instead, it ignited one of the most serious border conflicts in South Asia in decades. The strikes which hit civilian areas in provinces such as Khost and Paktika, provoked a fierce response from Afghanistan’s Taliban regime. What followed was an exchange of artillery fire, drone strikes, and mutual recriminations that left hundreds dead and the Pakistan–Afghanistan border effectively militarised.

For years, Pakistan’s military establishment boasted of “strategic depth” in Afghanistan, the idea that a pliant Taliban government in Kabul could serve as a security buffer against India. But that illusion has shattered. The Taliban, once Pakistan’s most valuable proxy, has turned its guns on its former patron.

The Monster Pakistan Built

The roots of this conflict run deep. Since the 1970s, Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency has played a central role in shaping Afghanistan’s militant landscape. During the Soviet–Afghan War, Islamabad, with U.S. and Saudi support; trained and armed thousands of Mujahideen fighters. When the Soviet Union withdrew, those networks evolved into the Taliban.

By the 1990s, Pakistan was the Taliban’s loudest backer. It recognised Mullah Omar’s regime, provided arms and funding, and dreamed of a subservient Afghanistan that would give Pakistan “strategic depth” in its rivalry with India. But you cannot control a storm you start.

The Taliban survived decades of isolation and war, learned to govern without Pakistan’s help, and ultimately returned to power in 2021 after the U.S. withdrawal. Islamabad celebrated, expecting gratitude and cooperation. Instead, the Taliban refused to recognise the Durand Line, the colonial-era border that divides Pashtun tribe, and began sheltering the TTP, a militant group attacking Pakistan from Afghan soil.

From Patron to Target

The spark came in early October 2025, when a TTP ambush in Pakistan’s Kurram district killed eleven soldiers. Enraged, Islamabad bombed Afghan territory, allegedly in pursuit of TTP chief Noor Wali Mehsud. Mehsud survived, and the Taliban’s retaliation was swift.

Taliban fighters launched cross-border raids, stormed Pakistani outposts, and paraded captured soldiers on social media. For Pakistan, which long considered itself the Taliban’s mentor, it was a humiliating reversal.

The timing could not have been worse. Domestically, Pakistan was in turmoil. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan languished in prison after his removal by the military establishment. His calls for diplomacy and restraint were ignored. Instead, Army Chief General Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif doubled down on military aggression.

Sharif’s government tried to sound conciliatory while Munir ordered more strikes, a schizophrenic policy that satisfied neither allies nor adversaries. What Pakistan got was a full-blown border war.

Economic Chaos, Political Collapse

Behind the conflict lies a country in free fall. Pakistan’s economy is crippled by inflation, power shortages, and unemployment. Rather than address these crises, the government has turned to scapegoats, notably Afghan refugees. Nearly four million Afghans are being expelled in mass deportations that the Taliban call “collective punishment”.

These expulsions, critics say, are less about security and more about distraction, a cynical ploy to redirect public anger away from economic despair. Meanwhile, anti-Israel rhetoric has filled the vacuum. Pakistani leaders rail against Israel’s actions in Gaza, even as their own forces bomb Afghan villages.

It’s an old tactic: manufacture moral outrage abroad to deflect from failure at home. But this time, few are buying it.

Taliban’s Maturity and Pakistan’s Miscalculation

The Taliban of 2025 are not the ragtag fighters of the 1990s. They now possess modern drones, artillery, and an organised command structure. Their battlefield discipline and tactical innovations have stunned Pakistan’s military.

In a symbolic move, the Taliban even announced a “pause in operations” from New Delhi, not Islamabad. The message was clear: Afghanistan will no longer take orders from Pakistan.

For India, this crisis is a geopolitical opening. New Delhi has cautiously re-engaged the Taliban, hosting Afghan officials and exploring limited cooperation. It’s not about friendship, it’s about influence. By maintaining dialogue with Kabul, India has quietly inserted itself into a space Pakistan once dominated.

While Islamabad accuses India of “provoking” the Taliban through diplomacy, the truth is more straightforward: Afghanistan is asserting sovereignty, and India is merely listening.

Pakistan’s Strategic Abyss

At the heart of Pakistan’s collapse lies its obsession with control over neighbours, over narratives, and over its own people. It has spent decades trying to manipulate Afghanistan through militancy and ideology. But every move has produced more instability.

Pakistan wanted the Taliban as a puppet; it got a rival.
It wanted “strategic depth”; it got strategic disaster.
It wanted security; it created the TTP.

Now, facing unrest on both borders and rebellion within, Pakistan’s generals find themselves trapped in a nightmare of their own making. The very jihadist networks they once nurtured now undermine their authority. The border war has exposed not just military vulnerability but a deep identity crisis, a reckoning with decades of foreign policy delusion.

The Durand Line: A Colonial Wound That Won’t Heal

The 1893 Durand Line, drawn by British colonial officials, sliced through tribal Pashtun lands. For Pakistan, it’s an international border. For Afghanistan, it’s an artificial imposition. Every generation of Afghan leaders, Taliban included; has refused to recognise it formally.

That unresolved line now fuels one of South Asia’s most dangerous flashpoints. No number of F-16 sorties can erase its colonial legacy or the tribal loyalties that transcend it.

A Mirror, Not a Border

Ultimately, the 2025 Pakistan–Afghanistan conflict is not just about territory or terrorism. It’s a mirror, reflecting Pakistan’s own contradictions.

It is fighting militants it once trained.
It is bombing allies it once funded.
It is deporting refugees it once welcomed.
It is silencing leaders it once elected.

From Imran Khan’s prison cell to General Munir’s war rooms, Pakistan is discovering that its greatest threat was never India or Afghanistan,but its own policies.

As the smoke clears over Kurram and Chaman, one truth stands unshaken: you cannot bomb your way to peace when the fire began in your own backyard.

- Ends