India is planning to launch a Two-Front War against Pakistan in retaliation for the April 22 (2025) Pahalgam terror attack. Reports suggest that the Narendra Modi Administration in New Delhi has started discussing the issue with the top Taliban leadership in Kabul.

On April 27, Anand Prakash, the Joint Secretary of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, held talks with Taliban’s acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Kabul. However, the visiting Indian official did not meet the press after his talks with the Afghan minister. Later, New Delhi confirmed the meeting, mentioning in a statement that fruitful discussions were held regarding Indian investment in various infrastructure projects in Afghanistan.

India halted those projects after the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in August 2021. Prakash assured the Taliban minister that New Delhi would soon restart them. According to the statement, Muttaqi requested India to issue visas to the Afghan businessmen, students and patients. The Taliban Government issued a separate statement, saying that Kabul was eager to bolster ties with New Delhi.

It may be noted that Afghanistan and Pakistan have a longstanding dispute over the Durand Line, the border between the two countries. Kabul does not recognise the Durand Line as the official international border, viewing it as a colonial imposition by the British. Pakistan, on the other hand, considers the Durand Line as the internationally recognised border. The Pakistani Taliban (formally called the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan or TTP), an umbrella organisation of various Islamist armed militant groups, has been active along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province (of Pakistan) in recent times. The outfit has declared a sort of war against Islamabad as it wants to create an Independent Pashtunistan in southern and eastern Afghanistan, and northwestern Pakistan, wherein Pashtun culture, the Pashto language, as well as identity, have been based. Interestingly, the TTP has also taken a completely opposite stance to the Pakistan Army on the Kashmir issue. Meanwhile, Islamabad has alleged that the Afghan Taliban is providing the TTP with shelter, weapons and financial support. The Taliban Government in Kabul has rejected Islamabad’s allegation, stressing that Pakistan has always sponsored terrorism. Political analysts are of the opinion that India is trying to exploit this opportunity in order to create troubles for Pakistan.

Pakistan has been on high alert since Prime Minister Modi announced that India would punish “every terrorist and their backers” following the Pahalgam terror attack which killed 26 tourists in Indian-administered-Kashmir. He also said that India would “pursue perpetrators of the Pahalgam attack to ends of the Earth“. The Pakistani Army immediately increased the number of soldiers near the Indian border. The Pakistan Air Force, too, deployed advanced US-made F-16 fighter jets to bases along the border between the two countries. At the same time, a number of Pakistani ministers issued threats of tactical nuclear strikes against India! According to defence analysts, it is quite difficult for the Indian Armed Forces to retaliate in the current situation. However, instability along the Pak-Afghan border would prompt Islamabad to move its troops towards that direction, allowing India to carry out military operations near the eastern border of Pakistan. Hence, the Modi Government is coordinating with the Taliban leadership in Kabul.

Analysts are of the opinion that the Taliban would not engage in a direct border conflict with Pakistan for the sake of India. Instead, they would ask the TTP to carry out guerrilla-style attacks on the Pakistani Army. The TTP can also inflict great damage on the Pak Army from their secret bases in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province. The Pakistani Army issued a statement on April 27, stressing that 54 armed insurgents were gunned down on the Afghan border. As per the statement, those insurgents were trying to enter Pakistan with huge quantities of arms, ammunition and war equipment. Just a day before, the Pakistani Army eliminated 15 insurgents during a gunfight in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

There are intensifying demands for greater political autonomy, including independence, from Baloch groups within the Balochistan Province, too. The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) recently attacked a Pakistani Army convoy there, killing 10 soldiers. The BLA and the common people of Balochistan have openly sought India’s help in seceding from Pakistan. In such a scenario, the close cooperation between India and the Afghan Taliban has sparked alarm in Islamabad.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has reportedly advised his younger brother and current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to utilise all available diplomatic resources in order to restore peace with India, insisting that he is against taking an aggressive position. Reports suggest that the two brothers met in Lahore on April 27 evening amid Pakistan’s panic after India’s crackdown and suspension of the Indus Water Treaty. During the meeting, Shehbaz Sharif attempted to present a false narrative about the Pahalgam terror attack to Nawaz Sharif. Meanwhile, China has provided the Pakistani Air Force with special missiles to counter India’s Rafale fighter jets, if required.

In the past, the Pak-Afghan border became tense whenever Indian diplomats held talks with the Taliban leadership as the TTP increased its attacks on the Pakistani Armed Forces from the terrains of the mountainous region. Pakistan would be in deep trouble if the TTP takes a similar step yet again. It may be noted that the Taliban-led Afghan Government strongly condemned the Pahalgam terror attack in a rare diplomatic move. Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the spokesperson of the Afghan Foreign Ministry, issued a statement on April 22 (2025), directly denouncing the targeting of tourists. He emphasised that “such acts threaten regional peace and stability”.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das