TTP North Waziristan Battle Day 2 (71 Killed Total); Pakistan-Iran Deport 2,200+ Afghans in One Day; Trump Congo Plan for Afghan Allies Sparks Outrage

April 26, 2026 marked the second day of heavy fighting in North Waziristan as Pakistani security forces continued to repel a major TTP cross-border infiltration attempt from Afghanistan. The three-day operation (April 25–27) ultimately killed at least 71 TTP militants in the Hassan Khel area and surrounding border zones of North Waziristan district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. On the night of April 27–28, an additional 17 militants were neutralized during follow-on sanitization operations. Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi publicly commended security forces following the operation, calling it a decisive counter-terrorism success. The infiltration column — the largest since the Urumqi non-escalation framework took effect April 9 — confirmed TTP's continued use of Afghan territory as a staging area for cross-border operations despite the inter-state non-escalation between the Taliban government and Pakistani state forces. The inter-state non-escalation framework reached its 17th consecutive day without major cross-border military exchanges between the Islamic Emirate government and the Pakistani armed forces — sustaining the longest unbroken lull since Operation Ghazab-il-Haq began February 26, 2026. Pakistani authorities analytically distinguished the TTP infiltration from the Taliban-Pakistan bilateral framework: TTP operates from Afghan soil with Taliban tolerance but technically outside Taliban state command authority. On the humanitarian front, mass Afghan deportations from Pakistan and Iran continued to accelerate sharply. KabulNow reported that Pakistan and Iran deported more than 2,200 Afghans in a single day on April 26, with approximately 4,088 Afghans returned from Pakistan alone over April 25–26. The accelerating pace — substantially above previous weekly averages — is fueling a deepening humanitarian crisis at Afghan border reception points, where returnees arrive with minimal support or documentation. Deportees include undocumented residents, individuals with valid Pakistani visas, and former Afghan government employees, military personnel, and journalists who face risk of Taliban detention or persecution upon return. Pakistan's cumulative deportation total for 2026 exceeded 147,000 individuals per HRW/UNHCR tracking, with combined Pakistan and Iran deportations in April 2026 reaching approximately 280,000+. International humanitarian organizations including UNHCR and Refugees International continued to call on Pakistan to halt forced returns pending proper refugee status determination. A separate but related controversy exploded internationally on April 26 as multiple outlets confirmed that the Trump administration is actively considering relocating approximately 1,100 Afghan allies currently at Camp As Sayliyah, Doha, Qatar — including former US military interpreters, Special Operations Force personnel, and their families, including approximately 400 children — to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The plan, confirmed by NBC News, Newsweek, and the Washington Post, drew immediate and intense criticism from veterans groups, bipartisan congressional members, and human rights organizations who called the Congo option 'unconscionable' and 'a betrayal of those who risked their lives for America.' DRC is currently hosting over 600,000 refugees in an active humanitarian crisis of its own, with ongoing armed conflict in eastern provinces. The Afghans at Camp As Sayliyah have been in legal limbo since being evacuated from Afghanistan in 2021–2022 after serving alongside US forces; the Trump administration has halted their resettlement to the United States while reviewing the program. The Taliban's IEA foreign ministry — which on April 25 had called on these Afghans to return home, asserting they faced no security risks — denied any risk to returnees, a claim disputed by human rights monitors who have documented Taliban persecution, detention, and killing of former US collaborators and their families.