Beyond Imran Khan: The security crisis Americans are missing in Pakistan

Americans are hearing plenty from influencers and lobbyists about Imran Khan’s imprisonment. They are hearing far less about militants attacking Pakistan from Afghanistan — and Pakistan’s growing fight with the Taliban next door.

That security crisis is behind Islamabad’s stated decision to take control of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, or KP, the northwestern province bordering Afghanistan and the last province governed by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, or PTI.

Pakistan on Sunday imposed governor’s rule, suspending the provincial government and putting an appointed governor in charge.

The federal government says PTI’s administration failed to cooperate in fighting terrorism. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar accused it of working “hand in glove” with the Pakistani Taliban.

PTI denies the accusations and calls the takeover political victimization. Its interim chairman, Gohar Ali Khan, says removing elected leaders will not solve the province’s problems.

The takeover also came as Khan’s supporters prepared to march on Islamabad to demand his release. Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and some cabinet members were detained, a federal minister told Reuters.

Those developments deserve coverage. But focusing entirely on Khan misses the security threat facing Pakistan — and why Americans should care.

As I have been flagging for weeks, Pakistan’s tensions with the Afghan Taliban have been rising over militants using Afghan territory to attack Pakistan.

Two separate groups are involved. The Afghan Taliban rules Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, fights Pakistan’s government. They have longstanding ties and fought alongside one another against U.S.-led forces.

Islamabad wants Kabul to stop militants from using Afghanistan as a base. The Afghan Taliban denies sheltering them and says Pakistan’s militancy problem is its own to solve.

Pakistan is increasingly responding with force.

In September, Pakistani officials said they shot down eight drones entering from Afghanistan near Torkham and Kohat. Islamabad blamed the Afghan Taliban and announced strikes the following day on 10 locations it described as military targets linked to the drone attacks.

Taliban officials denied launching the drones and said Pakistan’s strikes killed four civilians.

Those claims need scrutiny. But concerns about Taliban support for militants are backed by more than Islamabad’s word.

A U.N. monitoring report covering December 2025 through June 2026 found that Afghan Taliban support for the TTP helped fuel more frequent and deadly attacks in Pakistan, according to Dawn.

The report also noted some efforts to restrain the group, including moving about 2,000 fighters and their families farther from the border and warning its leaders to stop attacking Pakistan. But moving fighters does not dismantle their networks.

Khan’s record matters here, too.

After the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021, his government negotiated with the TTP and offered amnesty to militants who disarmed. The Afghan Taliban mediated the talks, but an initial ceasefire collapsed that December and attacks resumed, according to West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center.

Negotiations continued after Khan left office. This history extends beyond one party.

Whenever I discuss Pakistan’s fight with the Taliban, someone reminds me that Pakistan supported the movement during America’s war in Afghanistan. Or that U.S. forces found Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad in 2011.

That history is real. Pakistan’s intelligence establishment helped the Afghan Taliban with money, training and weapons, as the Council on Foreign Relations documented.

But doesn’t that make what is happening now more interesting?

Pakistan helped the Taliban rise. Now it is demanding that the Taliban government stop militants from attacking its territory — and launching strikes when it says Kabul has failed to act.

That change deserves attention.

I am not taking a side in Pakistan’s political fight. I don’t think that’s my place as a foreigner.

What I am saying is that Americans who opposed Taliban rule have reason to care about efforts to stop militants from using Afghanistan as a base.

We can support action against those groups while questioning civilian casualties, military tactics and whether Islamabad’s takeover will make people safer.

America left Afghanistan. The threats did not disappear when our troops departed.

For Pakistanis along the border, this is about protecting their communities and preventing a wider conflict. For Americans, it is about militant networks in a region where we spent two decades fighting.

Whether you support or oppose Imran Khan does not answer those questions.

I hope to report more from Pakistan after finishing my work here in Kyiv — to hear from people living through the violence and tell the stories behind the political arguments filling our screens.

The warmth Pakistani readers have shown me has been overwhelming. I am grateful, and I look forward to getting there, listening and bringing those stories home.