Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Monday struck a defiant tone and again panned the Centre’s counterterrorism policy as federal ministers railed against his government’s efforts to combat terrorism.
Afridi, who was elected as the KP CM in October 2025, has repeatedly voiced his opposition to the federal government’s policies on counterterrorism and Afghanistan.
Earlier in the day, Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry and Information Minister Attaullah Tarar held a press conference in Islamabad, where they highlighted flaws in the KP government’s “leadership” and governance.
Meanwhile in Peshawar, addressing a meeting regarding law and order, the KP CM stressed that merely providing resources to the police would not solve the problem until there was a policy shift.
“We repeatedly stated that the state’s current policy was flawed. The blood of our Pakhtuns will flow again,” Afridi said, regretting that federal ministers “dismissed our repeated warnings as propaganda and lies”.
The chief minister highlighted that he had been consistently calling for a change to the “failed policy of 22 years”.
‘KP’s incompetent leadership’
Flanked by Tarar, Chaudhry said the PTI-led KP government had not made adequate efforts to combat terrorism.
He noted that a political leadership could “provide three things in the fight against terrorism: leadership, resources and powers”.
Chaudhry contended that the provincial administration in KP — where the PTI has been in power since 2013 — “did not provide leadership to the security forces over the past 14 years”.
The interior official accused the PTI-led government of “creating space” for terrorists.
“If Pakistan is burning in the fire of terrorism, it is because of KP’s incompetent leadership,” he maintained.
Chaudhry then noted that it was the provincial government’s responsibility to allocate funds for counter-terrorism in the budget.
“[Then], why did you not provide the resources?” he asked, adding that the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) was still not functional in the entire province.
“Your forces cannot fight unarmed. You do not have bulletproof jackets, cars, training, CTD, Safe City [project], or a forensic lab,” he said, claiming that Safe City projects had been completed on the tehsil level as well in Punjab.
The state minister sought accountability from KP over the usage of even one per cent of the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, which he said amounted to Rs800 billion.
Chaudhry pointed out that Afridi and his information minister did not attend the funeral prayers of the victims of the Sept 18 Kohat blast, but were rather “busy in their street movement or other matters”.
He recalled that the KP CM held a “very lengthy” press conference in Dera Ismail Khan in the wake of Saturday’s suicide blast, which claimed 12 lives.
“Why did they not condemn Afghanistan? Why do you have a soft attitude on Afghanistan? Why do you deliberately employ such ambiguity and demeanour, and do not openly condemn or name the real enemy or from where these proxies operate?” he asked.
Chaudhry reiterated his criticism of the recent KP Police Act, which has been proposed to replace a 2017 version and is aimed at curtailing the powers of the provincial inspector general (IG).
He also responded to PTI’s allegation that the party had not been included in discussions about war on terrorism, saying that the party leadership did not show up to meetings when invited.
“You come to Islamabad to demand NFC funds, but your CM does not show up for anti-terrorism meetings,” Chaudhry said.
Meanwhile, Tarar said PTI had not taken ownership of the fight against terrorism, again terming the party as the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) “B team”.
He alleged that PTI had facilitated terrorists in its over 12 years of governing KP and that it was not condemning them as it “suits PTI’s financial interests”.
“Sohail Afridi organised a ceremony and two Afghans did not stand up to pay respect to the national anthem. If I was there, I would have dealt with them right then and there. I would have banned them,” Tarar said.
Such an incident took place in September 2024, when PTI’s Ali Amin Gandapur was serving as the chief minister.
Tarar went on to highlight that the KP government had not ensured the registration of all vehicles yet, as doing so makes the “surveillance of terrorists easier”.
He added that potential revenue generated from car registration could have been used for the benefit of the people of KP.
“You sacrificed the security of the entire province for your political gains.
“You will now have to decide if you are with Pakistan or with Afghanistan. It is as clear as that,” the information minister declared.
Afghanistan’s ‘true face’
During his press conference, Chaudhry also highlighted the Afghan Taliban’s support for terrorist activities in Pakistan.
Islamabad has repeatedly urged the Taliban administration in Kabul to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries on Afghan soil, particularly those linked to TTP, that are used for attacks in Pakistan. Officials say those appeals have gone unheeded.
The state minister noted that terrorist “proxies are financed by our eastern border and their hideouts are on the western border”.
He emphasised that Islamabad had employed “every way” to convey its concerns to Kabul, including dialogue, dossiers and international forums, but to no avail.
Referring to the recent attack on a rescue vehicle carrying DI Khan blast victims, Chaudhry said that attacking rescue teams was not allowed even during war.
“This is their true face. Is this jihad? Even an enemy with some rules does not carry out such attacks.”
He said such terrorist activities were carried out in exchange for receiving funds in dollars, which were proportional to the number of casualties.
The interior official asserted that Pakistan had the “best systems” for investigating the identity of a suspected terrorist.
“Very few countries have enough data that in less than a minute, any heinous crime or terrorist incident-related information can be accessed in Nadra and other databases […] we instantly find out whether they are Pakistanis [or not].”
He then recalled that when authorities did not find any details in the database for a recent incident, they used open-source intelligence and geolocated a terrorist’s picture to Kabul’s Pashtunistan Square.
September witnessed another bout of conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan, with the former saying it struck terrorist sites in the border region in response to a recent spate of terrorist attacks.
Pakistan conducted “aerial and drone strikes” in another 10 locations across Afghanistan in retaliation for drones launched from across the border that were shot down in KP.
The Foreign Office (FO) has said a demarche was also delivered to the Afghan side on Saturday on account of the Sept 23 airspace violation by drones.
Kundi urges KP govt to postpone long march
Meanwhile, KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi urged the PTI to further postpone its long march now set for Oct 4.
“Fire is raging here,” he told the media while speaking on the province’s security situation.
“I advise the provincial government to postpone their long march due to the law and order situation, call all stakeholders and political parties to discuss peace in the province, and fight terrorism on the frontline.”
He contended that the PTI wanted to march on Islamabad and “spread chaos” even when terrorist incidents in KP were claiming people’s lives.
On speculations regarding the imposition of governor’s rule in KP, Kundi said that in his opinion, such a move could be taken if the federal government deemed it necessary “to save the province”.
He warned the PTI government not to “force the Centre” to impose governor’s rule.
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