Former Afghan interior minister Omar Dawoodzai has acknowledged remarks by Pakistan’s army chief while stressing that the Taliban represent only a small fraction of Afghanistan’s population and should not be equated with the Afghan people.
In a Facebook post on Monday, December 22, Dawoodzai responded to comments by Army Chief Asim Munir, who claimed that most fighters of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are Afghans. Dawoodzai said that if Munir was referring to Afghans living beyond the Durand Line, the claim might carry some weight, but emphasised that the Afghan Taliban make up less than 5 percent of the country’s population and do not represent the nation.
He highlighted that Afghans have consistently shown no hostility toward the people of Pakistan.
Dawoodzai, who has also served as Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan, said Islamabad’s primary conflict lies with the TTP and possibly the Afghan Taliban, and should not be framed as a confrontation with Afghan civilians or used to target Afghan migrants.
Recalling that thousands of TTP leaders were released from Afghan prisons in August 2021, Dawoodzai noted that Pakistani Taliban fighters once fought alongside the Afghan Taliban against the former Afghan government but now focus on challenging the Pakistani state.
He warned that broad generalisations and avoiding responsibility would only escalate tensions rather than resolve them. According to Dawoodzai, the situation requires transparency, honest policymaking, and acknowledgement of past mistakes, rather than collective blame directed at an entire nation.
Munir made his remarks at a national conference of religious scholars in Islamabad on December 10, which Pakistani media reported on December 21. He cautioned that Pakistan would not tolerate threats to its security or sovereignty from TTP fighters based in Afghanistan.
