News:

On Monday, April 27, 2026, Pakistan launched rocket and mortar attacks on the city of Asadabad, the capital of Kunar province. These attacks targeted residential houses as well as Sayed Jamaluddin Afghani University.  Eight civilians were killed, and around 97 people—including 30 students, as well as women and children—were injured.

Comment:

Pakistan’s recent attacks on Afghan territory—particularly the targeting of educational institutions such as Sayed Jamaluddin Afghani University—go beyond a simple border conflict. Islamabad has entered a new strategic role not only in the Afghan issue but across the broader Muslim world, acting in alignment with American interests—from Gaza to Iran and Afghanistan. This American-driven policy has diverted the Pakistani military from its historical hostility toward India and redirected it toward confrontation with Afghanistan. The aim is to allow India to remain at ease in its competition with China, while at the same time suppressing Islamic activism in the region through Pakistan’s army and intelligence services.

At the same time, new aspects of this mission are becoming increasingly visible. Pakistan is a society with strong Islamic sentiments and a large number of religious seminaries. Many of these institutions had a positive view of the recent transformation in Afghanistan and the rise of the Taliban government, since the Taliban themselves emerged from such seminaries. Nevertheless, while Pakistan is even targeting educational centers inside Afghanistan, it has launched widespread propaganda attempting to attribute the Afghan government and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to India and even to the Jewish regime. Meanwhile, Pakistan itself—under American influence—has abandoned its hostility toward India, expressed readiness to send its army to Gaza in defense of the interests of America and the Jewish entity, and has now also taken on a mediating role in negotiations between the United States and Iran.

The latest incident in this chain is the assassination of Sheikh Muhammad Idris, a prominent Deobandi religious figure who represents a shared scholarly identity between religious seminaries in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He was a Hadith instructor at Darul Uloom Haqqania and a senior advisor to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl ur Rahman). He had recently praised General Asim Munir (Chief of the Pakistan Army), describing him as “peace-seeking and service-oriented.” However, on the morning of May 5, 2026, he was assassinated by unknown individuals in Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and two police guards were also injured. The manner of this assassination appears to have been designed in such a way that it could be attributed to Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, thereby mobilizing Pakistani society—especially scholars and religious institutions—against the Afghan government and the TTP.

This treacherous policy of Pakistan is the result of adopting nationalist ideology and prioritizing national interests on the basis of which it acts against the Muslim Ummah. However, the solution for the rulers of Afghanistan is not to adopt the same framework. As seen in reactions toward Pakistan, the atmosphere within Afghanistan has also become increasingly nationalist, and a clear Islamic position is largely absent. Even under Pakistan’s demands, pressure on foreign Mujahideen within Afghanistan has increased, despite the fact that resorting to such policies has repeatedly proven unsuccessful. The rulers are obliged to adhere solely to Islam and to make it the sole criterion of their political conduct. This cannot be achieved through nationalism or the nation-state system, but only through the establishment of the second rightly guided Caliphate.