Islamabad's worst nightmare: How Taliban broke Pakistan's heart, became India's unlikely ally

Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi (C) arrives for a press conference at the Embassy of Afghanistan in New Delhi on October 12, 2025. (Photo by Arun SANKAR / AFP)

Pakistan’s decades-long gamble of nurturing the Taliban as its strategic puppet has finally imploded. In a move that Islamabad never saw coming, the very regime it midwifed in Kabul has now endorsed India’s position on Jammu and Kashmir. The Taliban’s quiet but deliberate recognition of Kashmir as part of India isn’t just a diplomatic embarrassment; it’s Pakistan’s worst foreign policy nightmare coming true. The monster it fed with money, weapons, and ideology is now biting back with geopolitical precision.

The shift, coming amid deadly border clashes between Afghan and Pakistani forces, signals the erosion of Pakistan’s regional dominance and the emergence of a far more assertive Kabul. For India, this unexpected alignment marks a rare strategic opening in South Asia’s turbulent geopolitics.

A joint statement that shook Islamabad

Pakistan erupted in fury after the joint statement issued following talks between Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in New Delhi referred to the site of the Pahalgam terror attack as being located in “Jammu and Kashmir, India.”

For Islamabad, the phrasing amounted to a diplomatic betrayal. It summoned the Afghan ambassador to lodge a protest, claiming that the statement violated “the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the legal status of Jammu and Kashmir.” The Pakistani Foreign Office went on to describe the statement as “highly insensitive” to the “sacrifices and sentiments” of Kashmiris.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari quickly joined the chorus, declaring, “Pakistan will never accept any disputed or misleading position on Jammu and Kashmir.” He accused the Taliban regime of having “turned away from the just struggle of the oppressed people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, thereby doing injustice to both history and the Muslim Ummah.”

However, the Taliban has stood by the statement. Diplomatic sources, quoted by media report, confirmed that the Afghan side did not withdraw or amend its wording, despite Pakistan’s outrage.

First implicit recognition of Indian sovereignty

This is the first time that the Taliban has implicitly recognised Jammu and Kashmir as part of India in any official document. When Kabul condemned the Pahalgam terror attack earlier this year, it had referred only to “the Pahalgam region of Jammu and Kashmir,” carefully omitting the word “India.”

New Delhi maintains that India and Afghanistan share a 106-kilometre border in the Kashmir region, a position Islamabad has always rejected. At the New Delhi meeting, Jaishankar reaffirmed that India is a “contiguous neighbour” of Afghanistan -- a statement that, while factual, carried deep political symbolism.

For Pakistan, this is a diplomatic humiliation. The Taliban, once considered its ideological and strategic proxy, is now publicly aligning with New Delhi’s territorial position.

Pakistan’s bond with the Taliban dates back to the group’s very inception. In the 1990s, Islamabad’s military and intelligence establishment engineered and nurtured the Taliban’s rise, arming, funding, and sheltering its fighters as part of a calculated bid to control Afghanistan. The relationship continued even after the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, when Pakistan’s then-ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed rushed to Kabul amid internal turmoil within the Taliban ranks. His unannounced visit, punctuated by his smug remark “everything will be okay” to reporters, symbolised Pakistan’s illusion of control. That illusion now lies in ruins as the same Taliban leadership openly defies Rawalpindi’s diktats and moves closer to India.

Border clashes expose deepening rift

Even as the diplomatic row unfolded, the two countries were engaged in some of the most intense border clashes in recent years. Over the weekend, heavy fighting left scores dead on both sides. Pakistan said 23 of its soldiers were killed and claimed its forces killed over 200 Taliban and allied fighters. The Taliban’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid disputed those numbers, asserting that nine Afghan fighters were killed while “58 Pakistani troops” died.

The clashes erupted after Pakistan accused the Taliban of sheltering Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants, a charge Muttaqi dismissed outright. “There are no safe havens of TTP in Afghanistan now,” he told reporters in New Delhi.

He blamed Pakistan for its own instability: “If Pakistan wants peace, they have a bigger army and better intelligence – why are they not controlling it? Instead of blaming us, they should control the issues in their territory.”

Muttaqi also reminded Islamabad that its border is nearly impossible to police fully. “The Afghanistan-Pakistan border, the Durand Line, is more than 2,400 km long. It could neither be controlled by ‘Changez’ nor ‘Angrez’… Strength alone cannot control it.”

His sharp words underscored a new confidence in Kabul’s foreign policy, one that is no longer dictated by Rawalpindi’s generals.

A nightmare for Pakistan’s ‘strategic depth’ doctrine

Pakistan’s military establishment long viewed Afghanistan as a pliant buffer state that could provide “strategic depth” in case of war with India. That illusion now lies shattered. The Taliban’s open defiance, refusal to host Pakistani operations against TTP militants, and diplomatic overtures to India have dismantled decades of Pakistani influence.

For Islamabad, the nightmare is twofold. It faces cross-border attacks from an emboldened Taliban while losing its ideological grip over a regime it once nurtured. President Zardari’s invocation of the “Muslim Ummah” reflects desperation more than conviction.

A strategic opportunity for India

For India, the developments mark a subtle but significant victory. New Delhi has managed to re-engage with Kabul diplomatically without recognising the Taliban formally, while Islamabad finds itself isolated and humiliated. The Taliban’s recognition of India’s sovereignty over Jammu and Kashmir, even if indirect, strengthens India’s diplomatic standing and exposes Pakistan’s hollow rhetoric at global platforms.

Afghanistan’s evolving position highlights the shifting power balance in the region. A once subservient neighbour is asserting its independence, Pakistan’s “strategic depth” has turned into a security abyss, and India, long cautious about the Taliban, now finds in Kabul a partner of pragmatic necessity.

The irony is striking: the very regime Pakistan helped install is now legitimising India’s territorial claims and challenging Islamabad’s narrative -- a geopolitical twist Islamabad never saw coming.