Shafiq Ahmad
Tüm YazılarıThe visit of Türkiye's National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) chief Ibrahim Kalin to Afghanistan's capital of Kabul and the Afghan Taliban leadership's major city Kandahar on September 16, where he met with top officials a day before travelling to Pakistan, was a clear indication of Ankara's continued and sincere effort to help settle the dispute between the two neighbouring countries. Türkiye has already hosted talks between them in Ankara and Istanbul in November 2025. Some internal sources say these were indirect talks and that both sides remained inflexible in their positions, with no result so far.
Türkiye faces a Herculean task in resolving their issues, particularly as terrorism continues to rise in Pakistan, with Islamabad blaming the Afghan Taliban and India for supporting it. Kalin's visit did not produce any immediate results, as more than 50 Pakistani security and police officers have been killed in terrorist attacks in the week since his arrival in Kabul. Still, Ankara should continue its peace efforts to defuse the warlike situation in the region, as Türkiye is among the most trusted by both Kabul and Islamabad.
Kabul has publicly avoided disclosing the agenda of Kalin's visit to Afghanistan; nevertheless, visiting Islamabad soon after the two Afghan cities is a clear indication of Türkiye's mediation efforts to defuse armed hostilities between the two neighbors, with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a conglomerate of several militant groups, appearing to be the main topic of the agenda. Later that day, Hamad Khamis Al-Kubaisi, deputy secretary-general of Qatar's National Security Council, arrived in Kabul and met with senior Afghan Taliban leaders in separate meetings, with officials not disclosing the purpose of his visit.
Türkiye and Qatar have already hosted the two countries to resolve their disputes, with Pakistan accusing the Afghan Taliban of providing safe havens to the leadership and militants of TTP, as well as failing to combat cross-border terrorism, while Kabul denies the allegations, blaming Islamabad for carrying out airstrikes that have killed hundreds of innocent people in recent years.
Kalin had a broader agenda of discussions in Pakistan, including not only the issue of strained Kabul-Islamabad relations but also the spread of war in the Middle East, with the US bombing of Iran and Iranian retaliatory attacks on US installations, and the Yemeni Houthis' attacks on Saudi Arabia, with whom Ankara and Islamabad signed the Mecca defense pact in August, as well as the security and economic ramifications of the war for the world, particularly regional countries. Following his reception by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad, Kalin met with Pakistan Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and intelligence head Asim Malik.
- Türkiye—a trusted ally for regional stability
Türkiye is among the most trusted countries by Pakistan, with several economic and security agreements between the two countries, as well as by Afghanistan, which has cultural ties with Türkiye and where Ankara has previously played a mediation role to defuse tensions. Ankara has to continue to play the role of mediator, although it is a difficult one, as there is no apparent decrease in terror attacks in Pakistan.
Ankara has a history of spearheading peace and stability initiatives in different countries. It successfully pushed both Russia and Ukraine toward signing the Black Sea Grain Initiative in July 2022 to help stabilize the global grain supply, as well as facilitated talks between Somalia and Ethiopia, which led to the Ankara Declaration in December 2024. Ankara has also been involved in discussions on Iran's nuclear program before the US-Israel attacks on Iran in February of this year and has long backed the Philippine government's peace process with its southern area of Bangsamoro, officially called the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), as well as the recent dialog between Somalia and Somaliland.
However, the situation in Islamabad and Kabul is very different due to an array of factors. Whenever there is a terror attack in Pakistan, Islamabad is under public pressure to counter it. Islamabad believes terrorism in Pakistan is rooted in Afghanistan, and several other countries agree, including the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC), which have issued several statements urging Kabul to rein in terrorists' centuries.
This Pakistani narrative receives international support vis-a-vis Afghanistan, which denies allowing any militant groups, including the TTP, to operate on its soil. Several senior Afghan officials have already stated that they have been housing Pakistanis from neighboring tribal regions with refugee status "per international laws" following the Pakistan Army’s military operation in South Waziristan and North Waziristan tribal districts in 2014, forcing over a million people to migrate, while rejecting Islamabad's claims of allowing militant groups to conduct cross-border terrorist attacks.
Türkiye's efforts to improve the two countries' relations appear to be difficult as long as violence persists in Pakistan. It has been observed in the last several mediation efforts that whenever direct or indirect negotiations begin to defuse the situation, some major terrorism incidents occur in Pakistan, indicating that someone does not like mediation or regional stability.
- Ankara should continue peace efforts despite challenges
Although the immediate results of Türkiye's efforts appear to be a far cry, given the increase in the number of terrorism incidents in Pakistan, Islamabad has not only blamed Kabul for cross-border terrorism but has also conducted airstrikes in Afghanistan, in what it called a “retaliatory strike.” In all such attacks, Islamabad claimed to have killed TTP and its affiliate militants, while Kabul claimed civilian casualties from aerial strikes. Such attacks and counter-allegations have had an impact on ordinary people in both countries, as evidenced by statements made not only in mainstream media by geopolitical and security experts from both sides but also on social media platforms.
Despite the armed conflicts between the two countries, Türkiye, which has been hosting Pakistani and Afghan diasporas, as well as students with generous university scholarships, can help them connect by hosting debates and functions on major festivities to bridge gaps and establish people-to-people contacts.
Türkiye can continue peace efforts in various capacities, including through back-channel diplomacy, though Kalin's visit could not provide an immediate solution to the problem, with several terrorism incidents occurring in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province since his visit to the two countries. The latest of gory incidents is a bombing of a mosque in the regional office in Kohat, a city around 50 kilometers south of the provincial capital of Peshawar, claiming 23 lives of both police officers and civilians, with the army immediately launching an operation killing eight terrorists. During the last one week, over 50 security personnel and police officers have been killed during attacks in different parts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Two days after the Kohat attack, Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Afghanistan's Paktika and Kunar provinces, claiming to have targeted and killed 28 TTP militants. Pakistan's Information Ministry in Islamabad stated that the strikes caused no collateral damage. However, Kabul claimed that civilians were killed in the attacks, and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) confirmed that "at least three civilians, including a man, a woman, and a girl, were killed and four injured in apparent airstrikes" and reiterated the need for protecting civilians.
“So far in 2026, UNAMA has documented over 1,100 civilian deaths and injuries in Afghanistan from cross-border armed violence. We reiterate our call for respect for international humanitarian law to prevent civilian casualties,” said a UN agency statement.
September 24, 2026
By Shafiq Ahmad
Shafiq Ahmad is a Pakistani journalist with extensive experience working with local and international print media and broadcast outlets, covering Pakistan, Afghanistan, and South Asian affairs.
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