The recent war between Afghanistan and Pakistan has been overshadowed by United States and Israeli imperialism’s attack on Iran. Yet the Afghan-Pakistan war, which began on February 21-22, has resulted in heavy casualties on both sides.
It was launched by the Pakistan Air Force, with strikes on Eastern Afghanistan (Nangarhar, Paktika and Khost provinces). The right-wing Pakistan government of Mian Shahaz Sharif described the strikes as a response to consistent militant attacks inside Pakistan. He called them “targeted” attacks on Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Islamic State — Khorasan (IS-K) Province camps.
The Afghan Taliban government launched retaliatory attacks on February 26, leading to huge border clashes. Pakistan then launched a military campaign called “Operation Ghazab Lil Haq”. Pakistan’s defense minister announced the countries were in “open war” after several days of fighting.
Airstrikes and artillery exchanges reportedly hit areas including Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia. By March 5, there was heavy shelling along the disputed Durand Line border between the two countries.
While both sides claim heavy military losses, actual numbers are disputed. Yet, as in any war, civilians are the main casualties, and tens of thousands of people have been displaced near the border.
Despite US President Donald Trump initially describing the Pakistani Air Force attack as “good”, the coordinated attack on Iran shifted world attention, with Trump also forgetting to comment on this war.
All the main imperialist countries have been completely silent toward this escalating war between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Religious fanaticism
The role of US imperialism in promoting religious fundamentalism in Afghanistan during the 1980s has been forgotten. Yet to understand the present war we must revisit the past.
A radical Afghan military officers’ group, led by Noor Mohammed Tarakai, brought down the corrupt Daud government in 1978. A year later, the Soviet Union sent forces to shore up the new government.
This triggered Washington to work with the Saudi Kingdom to pour modern weapons and unleash huge economic support to religious fanatic groups interested in bringing down the new government.
Along with its support to these reactionary forces, US foreign policy felt no shame in siding with the Zia Ul Haq military dictatorship in Pakistan. This was despite the regime having just hanged deposed Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in April 1979 on a false accusation of murder.
US imperialism supported religious fanaticism in both countries for more than 10 years after the suspicious death of dictator Zia Ul Haq in an airplane accident. This meant support to Pakistani governments led by Benazir Bhutto and Mian Nawaz Sharif, as well as aid for the Mujahidin in Afghanistan. The Taliban used Pakistan to educate and train itself before being able to take over Kabul in 1996.
The Pakistan ruling elite welcomed the Taliban government and gave an impression that this was due to their actions. The Taliban’s first acts on assuming government were the public hanging of Najib Ullah (who had remained in the United Nations headquarters in Kabul after being deposed in 1992) and the banning of girls’ education.
However, after the September 11 terrorist attacks, US-led NATO forces overthrew the Taliban. Despite the Taliban’s control over less than half of the country, Washington wanted the regime toppled and the country occupied, even though other options were available for removing the Taliban from power.
By installing a pseudo-civilian government, the NATO occupation of Afghanistan led to the spread of religious fundamentalism in Pakistan.
General Musharaf overthrew the Mian Nawaz Sharif government in 1999. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, bordering Afghanistan, was led by the religious fanatic MMA [Islamic coalition] government, which provided support to the Taliban fleeing to Pakistan in the aftermath of the NATO attack. They encouraged the setting up of thousands of madrasas [Islamic religious schools] from 1980 onwards, which enabled the Taliban to capture real street power.
Following the withdrawal of US-led forces on August 15, 2021, the Taliban returned to power. Despite vague promises, they established an all-male government led by Supreme Leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada. This “second time” regime, following their 1996–2001 rule, prioritises Taliban interpretation of strict sharia [religious law].
The Indian connection
As of early this year, the relationship between the Taliban government in Afghanistan and India’s right-wing Narendra Modi government remains pragmatic. While India does not formally recognise the Taliban regime, it has upgraded its technical presence in Kabul to a full embassy and is actively engaging in protecting its strategic, economic and security interests in the region.
This relationship was created in response to the changing geopolitics of the South Asian region. Following the India-Pakistan four-day war in May last year, US imperialism lowered the status of its relationship with India, apparently because Trump was annoyed at Modi’s refusal to stop the war.
Although Pakistan had received and spent US$45 billion from China for developing the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Trump was favoured over China by military generals and the civilian government of Shahbaz Sharif.
The Trump card
To ensure Pakistan was on his side before attacking Iran in June 2025, Trump warmly welcomed field marshal Asim Munir to the White House, anointing him as his “more favoured general”.
Days later, the US Air Force and Navy attacked three nuclear facilities in Iran as part of its 12-day war, carried out under the code name Operation Midnight Hammer. Trump said the strikes “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities. Despite this claim, Trump has again attacked Iran with the same excuse in February.
Meanwhile, Indian imperialism responded to the deepening US-Pakistan relationship by providing more support to the Taliban. This resulted in more attacks inside Pakistan in the past six months.
The war
Pakistan launching a full-fledged attack on the Taliban-led government is related to escalating terrorist activities in KP. It is estimated that almost 30% of KP is effectively controlled by TTP, at least during the night, with full support from the Taliban.
In January, Pakistan recorded 87 militant attacks nationwide, 38 of them in KP, the highest among provinces. According to statistics released by the Islamabad-based think tank Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), combat-related deaths in January rose by 43% compared to December 2025. A total of 361 people were killed during the month.
There were major terrorist attacks in KP in February. A suicide attack on an Islamabad Mosque killed 40 and injured more than 170 on February 6. IS-K targeted the Shia Mosque during Friday prayers. In another major attack on February 16 at Bajaur district in KP, 11 security personnel plus one child were killed.
The TTP claimed responsibility for bombings and shootings in what were merciless and unrelenting attacks on mosques and markets. They were daring enough to take on hard targets, including army bases and airports, and shameless enough to take on soft ones, such as schools and shrines. They decapitated Pakistani police officers and soldiers, then uploaded videos to social media for the world to see.
Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf
The growing influence and persistent terrorist attacks are becoming a challenge to the Pakistani state. Between 2018–22, then-Prime Minister Imran Khan, from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), promoted negotiations with religious fanatics as a way to counter their influence. While he was in office, 12 hardcore TTP members were released from custody.
Pakistan has previously negotiated at least a half-dozen “peace deals” with the TTP. These negotiations have reinforced the influence of religious fanatics, turning Pakistan into another Afghanistan.
As Ashan Butt, Associate Professor at George Mason University, wrote in Al Jazeera on October 27, 2021: “The TTP’s desire is to overthrow, violently or otherwise, the Pakistani state and impose their interpretation of sharia throughout the country. There is no offering short of this, no concession or act of generosity, that Islamabad will be able to buy TTP forbearance with.
“In fact, all a peace deal will do — all it has ever done, when it comes to the TTP — is allowing it to regroup, reorganise, rearm, and bolster its capacity for death and destruction.
“Imran Khan was the avatar for a deeply sympathetic position towards the Taliban. Not for nothing did he earn the moniker ‘Taliban Khan’.”
Negotiation with religious fanatics is never an option for peace. Khan, now imprisoned on corruption charges, later revealed that he had invited 5000 Taliban to Pakistan in the name of rehabilitation.
After his government lost a vote of no confidence, the Taliban terrorist activities grew to a record level across Pakistan. To the present day, the PTI government in KP continues to promote negotiations with fanatics.
More than 50,000 Pakistanis have been killed by Taliban terrorist attacks in Pakistan over the past 20 years.
After a series of disappointing performances by consecutive civilian governments since the departure of Musharaf’s dictatorship in 2008, the overall Pakistani political landscape has shifted further to the right. This is a very favourable constituency for promoting religious fundamentalist groups and ideology.
Instead of learning lessons, civilian governments have promoted one or another religious group, only to then turn against them, attempting to rid the country of these state-sponsored religious fanatics by banning, jailing and killing them. None of these religious fanatic organisations are indigenous to Pakistan.
Despite these experiences, military-dominated civilian governments never sever their relationship with those ideologies or develop effective strategies to counter them.
The military remains the de facto power broker, forging and dissolving alliances and governments, however best suited its interests. As a result, of Pakistan’s 29 prime ministers since independence in 1947, none has completed a full five-year term.
Military operations
Military operations have never been a real solution to end the domination of religious fanaticism.
Pakistani forces have conducted at least 10 major military operations, along with numerous smaller operations, since 2001:
- Operation Enduring Freedom (2001–2002),
- Operation Al Mizan (2002–2006),
- Operation Zalzala (2008),
- Operations Sher Dil, Rah-e-Haq,
- Rah-e-Rast (2007–2009),
- Rah-e-Nijat (2009–2010),
- Operation Zarb-e-Azb (2014–2016): Launched in June 2014 in North Waziristan after the Karachi airport attack, this massive, sustained offensive aimed to dismantle the TTP and allied foreign fighters, displacing hundreds of thousands,
- Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad (2017–Present): A nationwide, broad-spectrum operation launched to eliminate the “residual/latent threat” of terrorism, combining military action with intelligence-based operations (IBOs),
- Operation Azm-e-Istehkam (Announced 2024): A proposed, highly contentious, and, in some accounts, unlaunched operation aimed at curbing the resurgence of militants in the frontier regions,
- Recent kinetic actions (2025) [Operation Sindoor]
None has resulted in the elimination of fanaticism, on the contrary more fanatic groups emerged.
The military has continued targeting militant hideouts in mountainous regions near the Afghan border, often using helicopters and, according to recent reports, initiating “open war” against the TTP due to increased insurgency.
Pakistan has two religious states on its borders: Iran and Afghanistan. While the Taliban is always seeking to expand their religious revolution to Pakistan, Iran has never done so because of the minority Shia community. The presence of these two states with religious extremists in power is another favourable objective reality for the spread of religious fundamentalist ideas.
After failing to curb the consistent rise of religious fanatic groups, a war has been started — but it cannot lead to a permanent solution for either Afghanistan or Pakistan. There will be more bloodshed despite a possible ceasefire between the two.
We cannot support this war. The bombing of Afghanistan or terrorism in Pakistan will not bring peace. Instead, we demand war and terrorist activities by the Taliban stop immediately.
Neither Pakistan nor any other nation should recognise the Taliban government as the legitimate Afghan government. Trade must be restored with Afghanistan through the traders’ community independently of the government.
The Pakistan government must change its policies towards fanatical religious groups. They must sever their state links to help them. There should be no state subsidies and no discriminatory laws against any religion or religious minority.
Further, the government must separate itself from the US government. There should be no Pakistani representation on Trump’s “Board of Peace” and a withdrawal of nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
These transitional measures cannot be expected of the present government of Pakistan, which has broken all records of sycophancy in support of Trump.
We must build our own political power independent of these capitalist and feudal-led parties. That would be a permanent solution to the rise of religious fundamentalism — and a road towards socialism.
[Abridged from LINKS — International Journal of Socialist Renewal. A version of this article first appeared at Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières. Farooq Tariq is the President of Haqooq-e-Khalq Party Pakistan, a member of the global council of the Fight Inequality Alliance and an executive committee member at Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development.]