ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar said Pakistan has effectively responded to Afghan aggression, confirming that Pakistani forces have taken control of multiple Afghan border posts during the latest escalation. Speaking after a detailed briefing by the Director General ISPR on Operation Ghazab Lil Haq and the evolving Pak-Afghan situation, Tarar said Pakistan’s response was measured but decisive. He maintained that Afghan Taliban authorities were backing terrorist elements and allowing Afghan soil to be used for attacks inside Pakistan. The minister said that recent terrorist incidents in Pakistan, including attacks on the Islamabad Judicial Complex, an imambargah, Islamabad Kachehri and the Tarlai area, involved Afghan nationals and were planned or facilitated from Afghan territory. He said Pakistan possesses evidence that Afghan soil has been used repeatedly for cross-border militancy. Tarar further stated that terrorist training camps were operating inside Afghanistan and accused the Taliban administration of providing safe havens to militants targeting Pakistan. Turning to internal conditions in Afghanistan, the information minister described the current Taliban administration as illegal and said it had seized power by force. He criticised what he called the Taliban’s new criminal code, alleging that it legalises repression, institutionalises inequality and contradicts both international human rights conventions and core Islamic principles of dignity and equality. He claimed that nearly 80 percent of Afghan women aged 18 to 29 are deprived of education and that Afghanistan has the widest gender gap in labour force participation globally. According to Tarar, women have been systematically excluded from political decision-making at all levels and face sweeping restrictions on employment and public life. The remarks come amid heightened tensions along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, with Islamabad reiterating its stance that it will continue to respond to any cross-border aggression and will not tolerate the use of Afghan territory for attacks against Pakistan. Copyright Business Recorder, 2026