ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON: A Taliban delegation met US special representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad on Thursday, two sources told Reuters, the first known contact between the two sides since US President Donald Trump called off talks last month.
Sources cautioned the meeting, which lasted more than an hour, did not represent a resumption of formal negotiations.
“The Taliban officials held a meeting with Zalmay Khalilzad...all I can tell you is that Pakistan played a big role in it to convince them how important it was for the peace process,” a senior Pakistan government official told Reuters, declining to be named as he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
He added the contact, which was confirmed by a second source, did not involve formal negotiations on the peace process, but were interactions aimed at building confidence. He declined to elaborate further on the content of the discussions.
The US Embassy in Islamabad and State Department in Washington declined to comment on whether a meeting had taken place. A State Department spokesperson said that Khalilzad had spent “several days” in Islamabad this week for consultations with authorities in Pakistan.
The spokesperson said Khalilzad’s meetings while in Islamabad did not represent a re-start to the Afghan peace process.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, would not confirm or deny that Taliban had met Khalilzad, adding that the Taliban delegation was still in Islamabad for meetings on Friday.
Trump halted the talks with the Taliban, aimed at striking a deal allowing US and other foreign troops to withdraw in exchange for Taliban security guarantees, following the death of a US solder and 11 others in a Taliban bomb attack in Kabul.
The Taliban delegation led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of the group’s founders, had earlier met Pakistan’s foreign minister in Islamabad on Thursday and both sides called for a resumption of the talks as soon as possible.
The United States has long considered Pakistan’s cooperation crucial to efforts to end the war in Afghanistan and the latest developments follow a meeting last week between Trump and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The US and Taliban said last month, shortly before talks broke off, that they were close to reaching a deal, despite concerns among some US security officials and within the Afghan government that a US withdrawal could lead to more conflict and a possible resurgence of Islamist militant factions.
Taliban delegation met US envoy during visit to Islamabad – sources
Taliban delegation met US envoy during visit to Islamabad – sources
- No confirmation from US Embassy in Islamabad and State Department about the meeting
- Taliban delegation is in Pakistan and called for a resumption of the talks
‘Look ahead or look up?’: Pakistan’s police face new challenge as militants take to drone warfare
- Officials say militants are using weapons and equipment left behind after allied forces withdrew from Afghanistan
- Police in northwest Pakistan say electronic jammers have helped repel more than 300 drone attacks since mid-2025
BANNU, Pakistan: On a quiet morning last July, Constable Hazrat Ali had just finished his prayers at the Miryan police station in Pakistan’s volatile northwest when the shouting began.
His colleagues in Bannu district spotted a small speck in the sky. Before Ali could take cover, an explosion tore through the compound behind him. It was not a mortar or a suicide vest, but an improvised explosive dropped from a drone.
“Now should we look ahead or look up [to sky]?” said Ali, who was wounded again in a second drone strike during an operation against militants last month. He still carries shrapnel scars on his back, hand and foot, physical reminders of how the battlefield has shifted upward.
For police in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the fight against militancy has become a three-dimensional conflict. Pakistani officials say armed groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), are increasingly deploying commercial drones modified to drop explosives, alongside other weapons they say were acquired after the US military withdrawal from neighboring Afghanistan.
Security analysts say the trend mirrors a wider global pattern, where low-cost, commercially available drones are being repurposed by non-state actors from the Middle East to Eastern Europe, challenging traditional policing and counterinsurgency tactics.
The escalation comes as militant violence has surged across Pakistan. Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) reported a 73 percent rise in combat-related deaths in 2025, with fatalities climbing to 3,387 from 1,950 a year earlier. Militants have increasingly shifted operations from northern tribal belts to southern KP districts such as Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Dera Ismail Khan.
“Bannu is an important town of southern KP, and we are feeling the heat,” said Sajjad Khan, the region’s police chief. “There has been an enormous increase in the number of incidents of terrorism… It is a mix of local militants and Afghan militants.”
In 2025 alone, Bannu police recorded 134 attacks on stations, checkpoints and personnel. At least 27 police officers were killed, while authorities say 53 militants died in the clashes. Many assaults involved coordinated, multi-pronged attacks using heavy weapons.
Drones have also added a new layer of danger. What began as reconnaissance tools have been weaponized with improvised devices that rely on gravity rather than guidance systems.
“Earlier, they used to drop [explosives] in bottles. After that, they started cutting pipes for this purpose,” said Jamshed Khan, head of the regional bomb disposal unit. “Now we have encountered a new type: a pistol hand grenade.”
When dropped from above, he explained, a metal pin ignites the charge on impact.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Raza Khan, who narrowly survived a drone strike during construction at a checkpoint, described devices packed with nails, bullets and metal fragments.
“They attach a shuttlecock-like piece on top. When they drop it from a height, its direction remains straight toward the ground,” he said.
TARGETING CIVILIANS
Officials say militants’ rapid adoption of drone technology has been fueled by access to equipment on informal markets, while police procurement remains slower.
“It is easy for militants to get such things,” Sajjad Khan said. “And for us, I mean, we have to go through certain process and procedures as per rules.”
That imbalance began to shift in mid-2025, when authorities deployed electronic anti-drone systems in the region. Before that, officers relied on snipers or improvised nets strung over police compounds.
“Initially, when we did not have that anti-drone system, their strikes were effective,” the police chief said, adding that more than 300 attempted drone attacks have since been repelled or electronically disrupted. “That was a decisive moment.”
Police say militants have also targeted civilians, killing nine people in drone attacks this year, often in communities accused of cooperating with authorities. Several police stations suffered structural damage.
Bannu’s location as a gateway between Pakistan and Afghanistan has made it a security flashpoint since colonial times. But officials say the aerial dimension of the conflict has placed unprecedented strain on local forces.
For constables like Hazrat Ali, new technology offers some protection, but resolve remains central.
“Nowadays, they have ammunition and all kinds of the most modern weapons. They also have large drones,” he said. “When we fight them, we fight with our courage and determination.”
