Defence Minister Khawaja Asif says the issue between the state and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is terrorism, not politics, and facts about the security situation in the province must be examined.

In a post on X, he said around 6,200 terrorism incidents and 1,200 deaths have been reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the past two years, while Afghan nationals carried out 37 suicide attacks. He said 14 suicide attacks have taken place during the current year alone, the majority involving Afghan nationals.

The Minister said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police has a total strength of around 125,000 personnel, of whom 13,000 are deployed for VIP protocol, while 17,000 posts remain vacant.

He said the Counter-Terrorism Department in the merged districts is almost non-functional, with only 17 bullet-proof vehicles and around 3,300 personnel, most of whom are contractual employees.

The Defence Minister said the police had sought 42 billion rupees for reconstruction and fortification of police posts to counter terrorist attacks, but the provincial government released only 1.2 billion rupees. He said, while on the one hand, claims were made on paper about spending 42 billion rupees, the amount had actually been misappropriated.

Khawaja Asif said the state's policy is to eliminate terrorists through action rather than negotiations. He added that the policy of negotiations and engagement with terrorists is contrary to the state's counter-terrorism policy.

The Defence Minister questioned the availability and use of funds by the provincial government. He said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government had received around 8.5 trillion rupees in federal financial support from 2010 to 2025.

He said the amount included 5.867 trillion rupees under the NFC Award, 705 billion rupees under the one per cent share of the divisible pool for the war against terrorism, 704 billion rupees for the merged districts and 482.78 billion rupees in direct transfers.

He said 481.433 billion rupees were spent under BISP in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from 2016 to 2025, while 117.166 billion rupees have been provided for internally displaced persons.

Khawaja Asif said more than 3,000 terrorism-related cases are pending prosecution, but no terrorist has so far been executed or sentenced.

He said the state's clear policy is "Hold, Build and Transfer." He said the first step is to secure the areas, followed by rebuilding infrastructure and institutions.

The final step is to hand over the areas to the civil administration.

The Defence Minister questioned why the provincial civil administration and courts are not moving forward to take over the administration of these areas.