Gul Maqsood Sabit

Lecturer at Ohlone College & Mission College, Former Deputy Minister of Finance of Afghanistan (Republic). Views are my own. Retweets are not endorsement.

[Gul Maqsood Sabit @gsabit1]

When there is no accountability, war crimes become the norm. Pakistan repeatedly murders innocent people, including children, in Afghanistan - yet the World is quiet. @UN @amnesty @IntlCrimCourt

[Elian Peltier @ElianPeltier]

Three eyewitnesses told us that Pakistan used a double tap (a first strike, then a second 10 minutes apart as rescuers and residents rushed to the scene) on a building it targeted in Paktia province last night. More than 30 people died (36 per Afghanistan, 32 per Pakistan) and 160 were injured in a series of airstrikes in three provinces.
https://t.co/WDoTxE13wU

[Yama Bariz @yamabariz]

Pakistan’s midnight air raid in Afghanistan.
BBC saw 21 injured civilians in the hospital.

hospital.
بي بي سي کابل ته ۲۱ تنه لېږدول شوي ملکي ټپیان په روغتون کې لیدلي.

[UNAMA News @UNAMAnews]

UNAMA has confirmed that at least 28 civilians were killed and 49 injured in airstrikes carried out in Paktya, Paktika and Kunar provinces in #Afghanistan on the evening of Sunday 28 June.
Full statement [in English, Dari, Pashto]: https://t.co/m4NvYHTDK5

[Gul Maqsood Sabit @gsabit1]

افغانانو سره اړیکې ونیسئ او د هغوی ژبه ووایئ. د افغانانو د علم خبره وکړئ، د ښه اقتصاد، ثبات او د یو مؤثرحکومت او یو والي خبره وکړئ. هغه اشخاص مو له منځه لرې کړئ چې د ملي ګټو په ځای شخصي او د پردیو ګټو ته ژمن دي او غواړي افغانستان بل بحران ته بوځي.

[Gul Maqsood Sabit @gsabit1]

د افغانستان په هکله راټولېدل او ناستې کول د هر افغان حق دی. خو دا د منلو وړ نه ده چه په دی ناستو کی د پردیو مو خې پر مخ یوړل شي او د افغانانو په نوم شخصي سیاسي تجارت وشي. که هدف مو ارام او د ټولو لپاره باثباته افغانستان وي نو بیا خپلی شخصي او ګروپي ګټې لرې کړئ.

[BILAL SARWARY @bsarwary]

In 2021, the Taliban won the war. Today, they are losing control of the border.

What is happening in Kunar is not routine cross-Durand line fire. It is a deliberate strategy.

Villages around Asadabad, Taba-Kot, Mano, Koremar, Sarkano, are being struck by Pakistani military forces. Dozens are wounded. Civilians have been killed, including four children. Over the past three months, there is no credible evidence of Taliban or TTP fighters being killed in these strikes. The victims are overwhelmingly civilians. This is not counterterrorism; it is pressure through civilian cost.

At the same time, the pattern suggests something larger. It appears less like retaliation and more like geographic engineering, a corridor gradually forming from Kunar into Nuristan and Badakhshan. We have seen this strategy before: create space, then enable proxy actors to fill it during the Soviets’ invasion.

On the ground, realities are shifting. Reports indicate the Pakistani army is taking more land across Kunar (Asmar, Naray), Nangarhar (Goshta, Lalpura), Helmand (Garmser, Dishu), and parts of Paktika, Khost, and Paktia while setting up military outposts. This is a gradual but strategic process, slowly altering the situation on the ground.

This pressure is not accidental. It seems calibrated to extract concessions from the Taliban leadership, especially regarding security cooperation. The underlying question may be much larger: reopening space for external military access, including sensitive sites like Bagram airbase to the USA, through channels linked to GHQ Rawalpindi.

But the deeper struggle is not solely about territory. It revolves around development. The Kunar River dam is at the heart of this contest. Blocking it, whether through pressure or instability, means denying Afghanistan energy independence, restricting economic growth, and maintaining long-term leverage.

This is not simply Pakistan versus the Taliban. It concerns who shapes Afghanistan’s future. Control the border, and you influence security. Control the river, and you influence development. Apply pressure, and you steer political decisions.

The uncomfortable truth is this: the Taliban mastered insurgency, but statecraft under sustained external pressure is a different game.

Afghanistan is entering a new phase, not of open war, but of strategic containment. And this time, the battlefield extends beyond just military means. It is economic, geographic, and political.

[The Diplomat @Diplomat_APAC]

The illegitimacy of the Taliban does not mean that the fundamental rights of the Afghan people have been suspended. 

https://t.co/IFEA3RqxlD

[Kenneth Roth @KenRoth]

"A Pakistani airstrike on a drug treatment center in Afghanistan on March 16, 2026, was an unlawful attack and a possible war crime....International agencies reported that at least 143 people were killed and more than 250 injured, most of them patients." https://t.co/AnHG3r2Zbs

[Gul Maqsood Sabit @gsabit1]

هر انسان په خاصه توګه هغه څوک چه په ملي مسایلو کی څان دخیل ګڼي باید یو معیار ولري. دا نه چه د قدرت لاس ته راړلو دپاره هره دروازه په بی شرمۍ سره وټکوي. د اروپا د یو دفتر نه وتل او بل ته داخلیدل فقط یو سیاسي تجارت دی. دغه ناپیژندل شوی څهری د هیڅ افغان نمایندګي نه کوي.
#افغانستان

[Reuters @Reuters]

At least 400 people were killed and 250 injured in an air strike by Pakistan on a drug users rehabilitation hospital in the Afghanistan capital Kabul, a spokesman of the Afghan Taliban government said https://t.co/vlllKi2E5n

[BILAL SARWARY @bsarwary]

Another concerning report: the Pakistani military struck a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul just hours ago. This assault, reminiscent of Israeli-style aggression like the one in Gaza, resulted in over 150 casualties on the 27th night of Ramadan. Attacking a medical facility, particularly one caring for more than 1,000 vulnerable patients, is a grave breach of international law.

[Yalda Hakim @SkyYaldaHakim]

"According to preliminary statistics, so far more than 250 addicts under treatment have been killed and hundreds of others have been injured."

＠TOLOnews journalist ＠BahraamHamid tells me his colleagues saw "bodies everywhere" at the Kabul rehabilitation hospital which was hit by Pakistani airstrikes, according to Taliban officials.

The victims were drug addicts who had been brought for treatment.

🌍 https://t.co/5sDY6xuODo
#afghanistan #pakistan #kabul

[Yalda Hakim @SkyYaldaHakim]

BREAKING: More videos from tonight's Pakistani airstrikes which hit a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, killing or wounding an unspecified number of people, according to an Afghan Taliban spokesperson.

Pakistan’s government rejects this, claiming they targeted "military installations".

(Apologies, I'm unsure why the previous post says 'deleted'.)

Read more ▶️ https://t.co/iRv0BMACL8

[Gul Maqsood Sabit @gsabit1]

government is no excuse to ignore the human rights of the Afghan people. The international community must act now to stop these military atrocities and hold those responsible for war crimes accountable. Silence is complicity. @UN @unafghanistan @amnesty

[Gul Maqsood Sabit @gsabit1]

Pakistan’s recent attacks on Afghan civilian sites, including a hospital, constitute a grave violation of international law and have resulted in the tragic deaths of innocent children and civilians. The United Nations' continued silence is unacceptable. Lack of a recognized

[Saeed Shinwari @Saeed_Shinwarai]

د مالیې وزارت پخوانی معین ګل مقصود ثابت سعید میډیا ته:
پاکستان سره د لارو بندیدل ښه شول، افغانستان په کور دننه تولیداتو ډېرولو او فابریکو زیاتولو ته مجبوریږي.
هغه وايي، پاکستان غلطه محاسبه کړې، د لارو په بندولو افغانستان نه زیات تاوان ځانته اړوي .

[Gul Maqsood Sabit @gsabit1]

Sharing my latest article published in South Asia Journal.
The Price of Leverage: Why Using Transit as a Weapon Guarantees Mutual Economic Erosion https://t.co/NnXgXVeGhl
#AfghanistanAndPakistan #WorldTradeOrganization #WorldBank

[Gul Maqsood Sabit @gsabit1]

Pakistan’s cross-border bombardment of Afghanistan, killing dozens of innocent civilians, is sickening and a grave violation. The United Nations and international bodies must urgently intervene to prevent further killings and investigate these actions. #UnitedNations

[Gul Maqsood Sabit @gsabit1]

د هېواد د خپلواکۍ د بېرته ګټلو یوسلو شپږمه کالیزه دی ټولو افغانانو ته ډېره ډېره مبارک وي. هیله ده چه یوه ورځ د شاه غازي امان لله خان د یو پرمختللي افغانستان ارمان پوره شي.

[UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett @SR_Afghanistan]

I received reassuring clarification from #Switzerland Removal practice to #Afghanistan based on ethnic criteria was "never under discussion". Important, as conflating Pashtun identity with Taliban support/safety in Afghanistan - by anyone - would be false, discriminatory&harmful