Wedged between India to the east and Afghanistan to the west, Pakistan long assumed it could manage hostility on one front while keeping the other pliant. One research organisation, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, estimates there have been more than 600 Pakistan Taliban attacks in the past year, mostly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and parts of Balochistan. No country has formally recognised Afghanistan’s Taliban government. He went further still, proposing a “grand confederation” of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey, which he believed would allow Pakistan to counterbalance India. Afghanistan’s Taliban regime is among the most repressive in the world.

Source: The Telegraph January 02, 2026 21:19 UTC