ISLAMABAD, Feb 11 (APP): Afghanistan continues to be a major hub for international terrorism, exporting insecurity through cross-border attacks, terrorist sanctuaries, ideological radicalization, and systemic human rights abuses, even as the United States takes new steps to prevent its aid from inadvertently strengthening the Taliban regime.
Since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, the country has hosted over 20 international and regional terrorist organizations with approximately 13,000 foreign fighters, including significant contingents of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), ISIL-K, Al-Qaeda, AQIS, IMU, ETIM/TIP, and Jamaat Ansarullah, according to different international reports.
Pakistan has repeatedly raised alarms at the UN Security Council about nearly 6,000 TTP fighters operating from Afghan soil, using it as a launchpad for attacks inside Pakistan.
The UNSC’s 37th Monitoring Team Report, released last week, described the terrorist presence in Afghanistan as a “serious concern,” noting a marked increase in TTP-orchestrated cross-border violence that has triggered military exchanges along the Durand Line.
Spillover effects have also reached Central Asia. In late November 2025 and early 2026, multiple drone and infiltration attacks originating from Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province targeted Chinese nationals and infrastructure sites in Tajikistan, killing five Chinese workers and injuring others, prompting armed clashes and Russia-led CSTO pledges to bolster Tajik border defenses.
The Taliban regime has failed to dismantle terrorist infrastructure, instead providing operational space, freedom of movement, and protection to these groups.
At the same time, the rapid expansion of over 23,000 madrassas under Taliban patronage has turned Afghanistan’s education landscape into an ideological pipeline, prioritizing radical indoctrination and exporting extremist views beyond its borders.
Combined with large-scale drug production, arms smuggling, and the deliberate export of instability, Afghanistan no longer operates as a rational state but as a generator of regional and global threats.
Compounding these security concerns are severe human rights violations. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has recommended designating Afghanistan as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) due to “systematic, ongoing and egregious” violations of religious freedom.
The Taliban’s new penal code enforces a narrow, tribal-influenced interpretation that denies non-conforming Muslims legal status, criminalizes daily life, and subjects Shia, Ahmadiyya, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, and dissenting Sunnis to repression, forced conversions, public executions, floggings, stonings, and spectacles of humiliation.
Women and girls face near-total exclusion from education (banned above primary level), employment, public speech, and unescorted movement—measures that distort Islamic principles and deepen poverty, grievance, and recruitment pools for extremists.
Underlying these crises is a structural reality: Afghanistan’s modern borders, drawn in the 19th century to serve imperial interests rather than internal cohesion, forcibly united deeply diverse ethnic, linguistic, and geographic communities—Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras, Uzbeks, and others—without a shared national project.
Every centralized government since the mid-20th century has faced resistance from the periphery, elite capture at the center, ethnic dominance, minority exclusion, and zero-sum power struggles that make insurgency a rational response.
Analysts argue that the country’s four-decade cycle of conflict stems not merely from leadership failures but from this fundamental mismatch between its social fabric and imposed political structure. Some advocate openly discussing alternatives—such as ethnic federalism, confederal arrangements, or negotiated power-sharing—that localize governance, reduce fears of domination, protect minorities, and shift competition from battlefields to institutions, provided any such process is consensual, gradual, internationally supervised, and includes verifiable safeguards.
Amid these interlocking challenges—aid diversion, terrorism sanctuaries, religious repression, and structural dysfunction—the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently advanced the bipartisan “No Tax Dollars for Terrorists Act.”
The legislation seeks to prevent any American taxpayer money from directly or indirectly benefiting terrorist organizations, particularly the Taliban. It requires the Department of State to develop a strategy discouraging foreign entities and NGOs from aiding the Taliban, mandates detailed congressional reporting on aid flows since August 2021, oversight of cash assistance programs and hawala networks, and protections for Afghan women, girls, and at-risk allies.
Watchdog reports, including SIGAR’s December 2025 findings, have documented persistent fraud, corruption, and diversion of billions in humanitarian and reconstruction funds—tens of billions lost overall, with at least $10.9 million in US funds confirmed as paid directly to Taliban authorities in taxes, fees, and utilities. Afghanistan’s 169th ranking out of 182 on the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index further highlights systemic graft, reinforcing the need for rigorous safeguards to ensure aid reaches vulnerable populations.
All future engagement with the Taliban regime must be conditioned on verifiable benchmarks: dismantling terrorist networks and ceasing their support, ensuring ethnic inclusivity, reversing gender-based restrictions, and upholding fundamental human rights.
Regional stakeholders, including Pakistan, continue to call for coordinated intelligence sharing, strengthened border security, financial tracking, and unified diplomatic pressure to counter the threats emanating from Afghan territory.