Warning to the Pakistani Government

Dear Sir or Madam,

Following the Soviet army’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, Pakistan received several billion US dollars from various countries to take countermeasures and organise and support resistance against Soviet troops. In response, your muftis conducted propaganda among the Afghan population living in Balochistan and Pashtunkhwa. They subjected people to systematic indoctrination, telling them that the Russians had invaded Afghanistan, that they were irreligious and had no holy book, and that they therefore had to be fought.

At this point, a factual clarification is necessary: the majority of the Russian population belongs to Christianity, and the Bible is its holy scripture. The blanket assertion that Russians are inherently irreligious and have no holy book is therefore misleading and factually incorrect.

Invoking what was described as a holy war, or jihad, Pakistani muftis issued fatwas (religious legal opinions) and thereby drove people into war against Soviet troops. The stated objective of NATO and its allies was to secure the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

In 1989, the then Soviet leader, Mr Mikhail Gorbachev, agreed to the complete withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, meeting the demands and wishes of NATO and its allies. The Soviet army completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan in February 1989.

Following the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989, Afghanistan, despite the devastating consequences of the war, still had a stable government. The country had a functioning administration, schools for girls and boys, and a national army equipped with extensive military hardware. The Soviet army had left behind substantial military equipment and large quantities of weapons in the country.

During the ten-year war in Afghanistan, not only young fighters in the so-called holy war, soldiers of the then Afghan government, and Soviet soldiers were killed, but also millions of innocent Afghan civilians. Among the victims were children, women, and elderly people, as well as educated individuals such as teachers, civil servants, doctors, university students, school students, and others.

With the withdrawal of the Soviet army in 1989, NATO and its allies had achieved their original objective and fulfilled their stated aims. There was therefore a genuine opportunity to bring the war in Afghanistan to an end. This could have laid the foundation for lasting peace and the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Pakistan, however, did not allow Afghanistan to live in peace. At Pakistan’s direction, a civil war was ignited in Afghanistan. The Pakistani leadership supported the Afghan factions involved in the civil war and thereby contributed significantly to its escalation. Pakistan accepted the suffering of the innocent Afghan civilian population as a consequence of its actions and plunged Afghanistan into chaos and anarchy.

Pakistan ensured that the Afghan government under Dr Najibullah, which had remained in power after the Soviet withdrawal, was overthrown in April 1992. State institutions and the administrative system were severely damaged or destroyed. Schools for girls and boys, Afghanistan’s national army, and other state institutions were devastated. Parts of the country’s military equipment and air force were also destroyed, while some military equipment and aircraft were taken to Pakistan.

Following the collapse of the Afghan government under Dr Najibullah in April 1992, Pakistan helped actors close to it, including warlords who had previously cooperated with Pakistan, take over the government.

Even after the attacks of 11 September 2001, Pakistan continued to work with the same individuals and warlords close to it with whom it had cooperated between 1979 and 1989. Pakistan worked to ensure that almost the same people who had previously collaborated with it were incorporated into Afghanistan’s new government.

The Pakistani military rulers thus continued to exert a destabilising influence on Afghanistan and significantly undermined the country’s political stability. Pakistan’s military dictators continued to prevent Afghanistan from living in peace, seeking instead to keep the country mired in chaos and anarchy.

During the deployment of NATO troops and their allies in Afghanistan from late 2001 until 2021, Pakistan pursued, in essence, a strategy similar to the one it had pursued against the Soviet forces between 1979 and 1989.

As part of Pakistan’s strategy, the civil war in Afghanistan continued, and innocent civilians continued to be killed. Newborn babies were shot dead, and pregnant women were shot in the abdomen. Wedding celebrations were repeatedly targeted in attacks, killing hundreds of people gathered in wedding halls. Girls’ schools were repeatedly attacked, killing hundreds of female students. Buses carrying civilians were targeted in attacks in which numerous passengers were murdered. Hospitals were attacked and patients killed. Mosques were attacked and people at prayer murdered. People were killed while shopping in commercial streets and at weekly markets. Innocent civilians were also killed in attacks in city centres, including infants, children, women, elderly people, sick people, and pregnant women.

Pakistan allegedly recruited individuals to persuade Afghan farmers who did not want to cultivate poppies to grow them instead, using financial incentives or intimidation. Individuals allegedly recruited by Pakistan also persuaded some people, through financial payments, to manufacture heroin in Afghanistan. According to these allegations, Pakistan’s strategy contributed to nearly four million Afghans becoming drug-dependent.

On the other side of the Durand Line, in Balochistan and Pashtunkhwa, Pakistan has subjected the population to various forms of oppression for 79 years, including arbitrary arrests, detention, torture, targeted killings, bombings, and enforced disappearances.

Anyone who demands their rights, speaks out, or criticises the military or the government faces arrest, torture, murder, or enforced disappearance. Those affected include journalists, activists, human rights defenders, lawyers, politicians, intellectuals, doctors, religious leaders, students, businesspeople, and other educated members of society. According to reports, more than 100,000 people have disappeared without a trace in Balochistan and Pashtunkhwa. These conditions are not a new phenomenon; they have persisted for many years.

According to a media report dated 16 October 2026, the following information was reported:

Pakistan poses a threat to Afghanistan and the wider region. Pakistan has created an environment conducive to terrorism and drug trafficking. Important leaders of the so-called Islamic State (IS) and members of "Afghan Mafia" are reportedly present in Balochistan. Some have been identified or arrested by third countries, including Özgür Altun, Mehmet Gören, and Mohammad Sharifullah.

Furthermore, statements by Fazal Qadir Mandokhail, a member of the provincial assembly of Balochistan, concerning the presence of Islamic State fighters in Balochistan are cited as evidence that Pakistan’s military regime has provided shelter to thousands of IS fighters and "Afghan Mafia" organised them, and armed them.

Reliable reports based on international investigations and satellite imagery reportedly indicate that poppy cultivation in Pakistan has reached, or is approaching, record levels. These reports are presented as allegedly irrefutable evidence.

Pakistan allegedly trains approximately 30 militant groups, including IS and other terrorist organisations, and sends them to Afghanistan, India, and other countries. These groups are also alleged to be involved in drug trafficking and poppy cultivation.

As mentioned above, you have allegedly contributed to approximately four million members of the Afghan population becoming drug-dependent.

Through your strategy, you have, over the course of several decades, allegedly caused the deaths of approximately 6.5 million members of the Afghan population, including infants, children, women, elderly people, sick people, and pregnant women. You have reduced numerous Afghan cities to rubble.

You have destroyed our civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, universities, mosques, residential buildings, and businesses. You have dismantled our administrative system. You have destroyed our national army, military equipment, and air force. For many years, you have imposed various forms of tyranny and oppression on the people of Balochistan and Pashtunkhwa.

You are exerting pressure on Afghanistan to force it to comply with your unacceptable demands. These include the following seven points:

First: You want Afghanistan to recognise the Durand Line as its official border. However, we can never accept, and will never accept, the division of our Afghan people and our territory caused by this line.

Second: You want Afghanistan to sever its relations with India. However, India has been a reliable partner and good friend of Afghanistan for centuries and has repeatedly provided humanitarian assistance without demanding anything in return.

Third: You want Afghanistan’s foreign policy to remain under Pakistani influence. This is incompatible with our sovereignty and is therefore explicitly rejected.

Fourth: You want Afghanistan to cede the Wakhan Corridor. We state unequivocally that we will not surrender any part of our territory—not even a single inch.

Fifth: According to your vision, Afghanistan should maintain only a very limited army, with a maximum of 60,000 soldiers.

Sixth: You want to prevent Afghanistan from building a dam on the Kunar River. The Kunar is our river. We will not allow anyone to prohibit us from building a dam in our own country, on our own river.

Seventh: You presume to decide how Afghanistan may manage its natural resources and with whom it may conclude contracts concerning its mineral wealth.

These are some of your demands. We state unequivocally that we categorically reject all the demands listed above.

The Durand Line is merely a line; it does not constitute a border in our view. Balochistan and Pashtunkhwa are Afghan territory. The people on both sides of the Durand Line, including the populations of Balochistan and Pashtunkhwa, belong to the Afghan people.

At present, the administration of Balochistan and Pashtunkhwa is in the hands of the dictators in Islamabad. The populations of Balochistan and Pashtunkhwa are dissatisfied with these rulers, particularly because of the arrests, torture, killings, and enforced disappearances carried out by the Pakistani authorities.

We can no longer tolerate the oppression and tyranny that have been inflicted on the Afghan people on both sides of the Durand Line for more than 50 years.

The Afghan people on both sides of the Durand Line, including the populations of Balochistan and Pashtunkhwa, do not want to live under Pakistani administration. The people of Greater Afghanistan want the administration of Balochistan and Pashtunkhwa to be brought under the control of the government in Kabul and placed in their own hands.

For many years, Pakistan has unlawfully subjected more than 100 million members of the Afghan people on both sides of the Durand Line to various forms of deprivation of freedom, tyranny, and oppression. We, the people of Greater Afghanistan, want to regain our freedom and achieve self-determination.

Let us be clear: we Afghans do not seek to claim the rights of other countries or peoples. We seek only our own rights.

Our Warning and Demands

We warn the Pakistani regime and call upon it to:

1. Immediately withdraw its armed forces from Pashtunkhwa and Balochistan.
2. Immediately release all political prisoners.
3. Immediately relocate the border posts to Attock, where they were situated before 12 November 1893.

We wish to warn you explicitly that, should you fail to comply, we will seek military assistance from foreign countries. We will make air bases available to the countries concerned in Balochistan, Pashtunkhwa, Bagram, Mazar-i-Sharif, and Shindand so that they can provide us with the necessary support.

As long as political power in Pakistan remains in the hands of military dictators, we see no basis for normalising relations. We have therefore reduced our trade relations with Pakistan to zero. Furthermore, we will not allow goods traded between Pakistan and Central Asia to use Afghanistan as a transit route.

An improvement in relations will appear possible only when power is transferred from the military dictators to a civilian and liberal government.

Yours sincerely,