What Message Are We Getting from DG ISPR's Presser?

I live in a country of two realities. There is the Pakistan of bustling markets, of spirited cricket matches, of weddings that stretch late into the night, vibrant and full of life. Then, there is the other Pakistan. A nation that quietly buries its sons and daughters with heartbreaking regularity.

A nation that lives in the shadow of a war it did not start, but one it is determined to finish. It is from this second reality that I feel compelled to speak.

DG ISPR Press Conference- October 10, 2025

This isn’t an abstract concern. This is our lived reality, a grim accounting of sacrifice. Our military leadership was recently forced to share the numbers, and they should cause the world to pause. In 2024 alone, while our soldiers and police hunted down 799 terrorists, we as a nation laid to rest 577 of our own—272 army personnel, 140 policemen, and 165 innocent civilians.

The bleeding has not stopped. This year, with over 10,000 intelligence operations conducted and another 917 terrorists eliminated, we have had to mourn 516 more Pakistanis—among them, 311 of our soldiers and 173 of our police officers. These aren’t just statistics; they are the profound cost of what our military leadership rightly calls, “a fight for Pakistan’s survival and stability,” clarifying that this is “not a battle for position or power.” It is a war for our very future.

We have borne this sacrifice while simultaneously hosting millions of our Afghan brothers and sisters for over four decades. When their country was ravaged by war, we opened our homes. They became a part of our communities and our society. We have shared our bread and our future with them, bound by ties of faith and history.

And so, with a heart heavy with the names of our fallen, we must ask a simple, painful question of our neighbors, and especially of the government in Kabul: Why?

Why does the land of people we call our brothers now provide sanctuary to those who plot to add more names to our list of martyrs? How can the government in Kabul speak of sovereignty, yet allow its territory to become a staging ground for attacks against the very neighbor who has stood by its people through their darkest hours?

We hear the excuses. We know about the sophisticated American weapons now in the hands of militants. We are aware of the role of external spoilers who wish to see our region in flames. But the ultimate responsibility of any government is to ensure its soil is not used to harm its neighbors. True sovereignty is not just freedom from interference; it is the will to control the malevolent forces within your own borders. Do you not see the bitter harvest you are sowing? Do you believe the vipers you allow to nest on your land will only ever bite us?

Here in Pakistan, our patience is stretched, but our resolve is ironclad. As the DGISPR has made unmistakably clear, “No political slogan or narrative can deter Pakistan’s armed forces from pursuing the war against terrorism to its logical conclusion.” This is not a threat; it is a statement of fact, a promise to our people that they will be protected. Our fight is a sacred duty to those we have lost and to the generations yet to come.

My plea to the government and people of Afghanistan is this: Look at our shared faith, our linked destiny, and the collective yearning for peace that unites our people. The path you are on, whether through complicity or inability, leads only to more funerals and mutual destruction.

Our hand remains extended in a desire for peace. But make no mistake, it will remain clenched in a fist against anyone who brings terror to our doorstep. The choice of which hand you grasp is, and has always been, yours.