• Islamabad reported 23 drone incursions in September alone
•
asserted
Islamabad → report → September
Afghan drones run on 55cc engines commercially available online; low-cost ‘suicide weapons’ can carry up to 1kg explosives, posing hard-to-detect threat to infrastructure
•
asserted
weapons → run → infrastructure
Experts warn UAVs can inflict ‘heavy psychological damage’
asserted
UAVs → warn → damage
BUILDING an air force no longer requires a proper defence budget, it just takes a 3D printer, open-source autopilot software and an internet connection.
asserted
it → build → printer
Over the skies of Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban are proving just how low the barrier to aerial warfare has fallen.
asserted
barrier → prove → warfare
In a conflict where one side commands modern fighter jets and aerial superiority, the other is fighting back with makeshift quadcopters and two-metre fixed-wing drones powered by online-bought piston engines.
asserted
other → command → engines
These unmanned aircraft are built to haunt the skies and fray the nerves of the other side, according to a report by France’s state-owned media outlet France24.
uncertain
aircraft → build → outlet
On September 23, Pakistan’s military forces shot down at least eight fixed-wing drones in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa fewer than 1,000 metres from the Afghan border, marking the latest cross-border unmanned aerial assault targeting Pakistan.
asserted
forces → shoot → Pakistan
Five days later, on Sept 28, the Foreign Ministry issued a diplomatic protest note to the Taliban over what it called “provocative incursions”, reporting that 23 drones had entered Pakistani airspace from Afghanistan since the beginning of September.
asserted
drones → issue → September
The Taliban have increasingly relied on unmanned aircraft since open conflict erupted between the two neighbours in February.
asserted
conflict → rely → February
An examination by France24 of photographs and videos showing drones intercepted by the Pakistan Army revealed that Taliban’s suicide aircraft appear to run on DLE55 engines.
asserted
aircraft → show → engines
Unmanned aerial vehicle expert Mark Grozel told France24 that these drones measure approximately two metres across and carry between half a kilogram and one kilogram of explosives.
asserted
drones → tell → explosives
Because they fly slowly and at low altitudes, they offer limited military effectiveness and are simple to shoot down once spotted, though detecting them remains a challenge, Grozel said.
asserted
Grozel → fly → them
While a foreign government could be supplying the aircraft, Grozel noted that building a homemade fixed-wing drone is no longer difficult.
uncertain
building → supply → drone
Autopilot trajectory software is widely accessible, engines and batteries are sold on the e-commerce platform Alibaba, and airframes that are cheap to make can be constructed using 3D printers, polystyrene or balsa wood, according to Grozel.
Despite relying on rudimentary radio navigation, basic engines and small payloads, the unmanned aircraft inflict heavy psychological damage.
uncertain
aircraft → sell → damage
“They allow you to tell your adversary: ‘I can threaten your infrastructure at any moment’.
asserted
I → allow → moment
If one hits a school or a fuel facility, the consequences could be catastrophic.
uncertain
consequences → hit → school
Their main power is their psychological impact,” Grozel said.
asserted
Grozel → say → ?
Open conflict
Islamabad and Kabul saw their relationship collapse roughly eight months ago when Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif publicly stated that “relations with the Taliban had deteriorated into an ‘open war’.”
asserted
relations → see → war
Tensions boiled over after Pakistan launched airstrikes inside Afghanistan targeting the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
asserted
Pakistan → boil → Pakistan
The TTP is an internationally designated terrorist organisation.
asserted
TTP → designate → ?
Pakistan accuses the Afghan Taliban of harbouring and aiding the TTP, which has waged an insurgency inside Pakistan for nearly 20 years.
asserted
which → accuse → years
Possessing aerial superiority, Pakistan has struck suspected TTP hideouts deep within Afghan territory.
asserted
Pakistan → possess → territory
The Afghan Taliban have answered such strikes with ground assaults and drone attacks.
asserted
Taliban → answer → assaults
Throughout 2025, routine border fighting reportedly claimed around 4,000 lives, and on Sept 18, 2026, a TTP suicide car bombing at a mosque in the Pakistani border city of Kohat killed 21 people.
uncertain
bombing → claim → people
Mukhtar Wafaei, an Afghan affairs specialist and expert on the Taliban, told France24 that the alliance between the two groups dates back to the 1980s Soviet-Afghan War, when religious schools in Pakistan sent Afghan and Pakistani fighters to wage “jihad” against Soviet troops.
asserted
schools → tell → troops
After the US-led invasion toppled the first Taliban regime following the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, Taliban fighters fled into Pakistan’s border areas, including Balochistan, Waziristan and KP.
asserted
fighters → lead → Balochistan
They share the same ideology, come from the same religious tradition and follow the same teachings.
asserted
They → share → teachings
They can no longer be separated.
asserted
They → separate → ?
A few months after the Afghan Taliban returned to power, the TTP leader stated very clearly in Pashto that TTP and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, meaning the Afghan Taliban, were one group.
asserted
TTP → return → Taliban
He said: “We are not two groups.
asserted
We → say → ?
We are one group, following one programme, one ideology and one method.
asserted
We → follow → programme
This is particularly revealing because the TTP leader himself explicitly described the two movements as one.
asserted
leader → describe → one
The Aporia
