Last week, Pakistani drones struck targets inside the Afghan capital of Kabul and at a bazaar in Afghanistan’s Paktika province. The strikes targeted the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan terrorist group, with the TTP stating that two “important” members had been killed.

Prior to the drone strike, TTP members attacked and killed 11 Pakistani military personnel in northern Pakistan on Oct. 7. The Taliban’s retaliation for the Pakistani drone strikes began overnight on Saturday, with multiple small arms and artillery exchanges reported at posts along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. These are the deadliest exchanges between Kabul and Islamabad in years. Dozens have reportedly been killed in the clashes.

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Further escalation between the countries ended after intercession from Qatar and Saudi Arabia. However, on Sunday, the two main border crossings between the nations and three smaller posts were closed. What’s really going on here?

Numerous outlets have noted that Pakistan’s escalation occurs as the Taliban begins pursuing closer ties with India. On Friday, Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi traveled to India for six days of discussions, the first exchange between New Delhi and Kabul since the Taliban’s rise to power in Aug. 2021. Muttaqi’s visit has advanced the relationship between the two nations, with India promising to reopen its embassy in Kabul. The Taliban has agreed to send its own diplomats to New Delhi.

Sadly, Muttaqi’s trip also visited the Taliban’s repression upon Indian women.

On Saturday, Muttaqi stopped at an Uttar Pradesh Islamic seminary to deliver an address. Prior to his arrival, Indian authorities informed female journalists that they could attend the talk behind a veil that would block them from the view of the men in the seminary. Afghan officials, however, refused to allow women to enter the facility. While Muttaqi later took questions from female Indian journalists, Indian leaders deserve derision for acquiescing to the Taliban’s demand. They subjugate women and normalize misogyny on the world stage. Of course, India is hardly alone in this regard. In July 2024, the United Nations kowtowed to the Taliban’s demands that Afghan women be banned from a U.N. conference discussing the future of Afghanistan.

It’s clear that the Taliban’s global influence is growing.

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The U.N. Security Council issued Muttaqi a travel exemption. Recent discussions between Muttaqi and Adam Boehler, the U.S. special presidential envoy for hostage recovery, appear to have made headway toward negotiating a prisoner exchange between the Taliban and the United States. That Muttaqi’s travel to India was not curtailed is an indicator that positive negotiations are likely ongoing.

All these developments are subsumed by one shameful fact, however. Namely, that the world is inching ever closer to normalizing relations with an organization that provides sanctuary for terrorists and denies half its citizens their basic human rights.

Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance contributor to Fox News and the host of The Afghanistan Project.