As a baby finding out in a madrasa in Afghanistan, Mohammad Khalid Tahir dreamed of waging jihad. By the time he was a young person, he had joined the Taliban and celebrated once they seized energy from the U.S.-backed authorities two years in the past.

But the excessive from that victory didn’t final. Reassigned as a soldier within the capital, he regularly complained that he was bored and longed to return to his life’s function, in response to his household.

So this spring, he did — however throughout the border in Pakistan.

“Our only expectation is to be martyred,” Mr. Tahir says in a video of him en path to Pakistan that was considered by The New York Times. About a month later, he was killed by Pakistani safety forces, his family members stated.

As a technology of fighters raised in battle now finds itself caught in a rustic at peace, hundredsof younger Taliban troopers have crossed illegally into Pakistan to battle alongside an rebel group, in response to Taliban members, native leaders and safety analysts.

Like Mr. Tahir, many say they’re decided to proceed waging jihad — wherever on the earth it takes them.

The exodus has renewed longstanding fears about violent extremism spilling out of Afghanistan beneath the Taliban and destabilizing neighboring nations or at some point reaching Western targets. Countries from Russia and China to the United States and Iran have all raised alarms concerning the attainable resurgence in Afghanistan of terrorist teams, like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, with extra world ambitions.

Taliban management has publicly condemned the outflow of fighters. The males, who acknowledge that they’ve gone to Pakistan with out official permission, have joined a militant group generally known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or T.T.P., which seeks to impose strict Islamist rule.

But whether or not Afghanistan’s authorities stems the tide will sign to the remainder of the world its capability and willingness to include extremist teams inside its borders.

“If you look at how the Taliban are enabling the T.T.P., restraining but housing various elements of Al Qaeda, protecting and shielding the alphabet soup of Central Asian militant organizations — all of this challenges the idea that the Taliban are serious about not allowing Afghanistan to be a safe haven of international terrorism,” stated Asfandyar Mir, a senior professional on the United States Institute of Peace, a federal authorities establishment.

In Pakistan, the younger males have already helped gas a return of militant violence this 12 months, worsening tensions between the 2 governments. Pakistani authorities have accused Afghan officers of sheltering terror teams and turning a blind eye to their troopers becoming a member of the teams, which Taliban officers deny.

Last week, an Islamic State affiliate lengthy primarily based in Afghanistan carried out a suicide blast in Pakistan that killed round 60 individuals. The bombing added to a mounting loss of life toll from comparable assaults by the T.T.P. which have grown extra frequent because the Afghan Taliban got here to energy.

Over the previous 12 months, the T.T.P. has carried out no less than 123 assaults throughout Pakistan — about double the quantity it claimed within the 12 months earlier than the Taliban seized energy, in response to the Islamabad-based Pak Institute for Peace Studies, which displays extremist violence.

It’s unclear precisely what number of Afghans have crossed the border to affix the T.T.P. or different teams, however it’s a small minority of the tens of 1000’s of former Taliban fighters.

“Young men seeking thrill and adventure is common everywhere; from Americas, to Europe to Asia, Africa and elsewhere,” stated Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “This adventurism does not reflect common trends or public opinion, rather they are anomalies.”

Those who go are pushed by yearslong non secular training in Taliban-run madrasas that extol the beliefs of world jihad and martyrdom, they and their family members say. Others are bored of their new peacetime roles as troopers or cops charged with mundane duties like manning checkpoints and doing routine safety sweeps.

Many are additionally invigorated by the collapse of the Western-backed authorities in Afghanistan.

“Peace and security have been secured in our country, so now we need to fight in other countries and secure the rights of other Muslims,” a Taliban member named Wahdat stated one current night whereas he drank tea alongside a handful of his colleagues in Kabul.

“It’s more important to go there and continue our jihad there than to stay in our country,” his buddy, Malang added. Mr. Wahdat and Mr. Malang, each 22 and now cops, most well-liked to go solely by their final names as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk to the press.

Both males grew up in Wardak Province, a stretch of central Afghanistan that harbored deep help for the Taliban, the place a long time of battle remodeled the younger technology. Schools run by the Taliban cropped up throughout the province. Boys aspired to wage jihad fairly than labor on their household’s farms.

“Our village had been known for producing engineers and doctors before the wars,” stated Abdulbari Wasil Sardar, 38, a resident of Wardak whose 17-year-old nephew, Muhammad Idrees Suhaib, was killed in Pakistan this spring combating for the T.T.P.

“Now the young generation are only interested in doing jihad,” Mr. Sardar added.

Like many boys of their village, Mr. Wahdat and Mr. Malang joined the Taliban as youngsters and disappeared into mountainside hide-outs from the place they staged hit-and-run assaults on Western and Afghan authorities forces. They celebrated every profitable operation in opposition to the so-called infidels. They lionized their pals who died as martyrs.

But when the Taliban seized energy in 2021, Mr. Wahdat and Mr. Malang have been reassigned to police items in Kabul, the place they spent their days sitting round their outpost, stressed to go to the mountains.

When 5 of their pals went to Pakistan this spring to return to jihad, each males brimmed with jealousy. Pulling out his cellphone, Mr. Malang opened a video exhibiting a bunch of males strolling throughout the border, scarfs wrapped tightly round their heads to guard them from the mud.

“We have friends there who even carried out suicide attacks,” Mr. Wahdat stated, looking at his buddy’s cellphone. Both males say they are going to go to Pakistan within the coming months to affix the T.T.P.

Pakistan officers have implored the Taliban to crack down on border crossings. On Sunday, Pakistan’s military chief, Gen. Syed Asim Munir, implied that his nation would use power if Afghanistan did not act, citing considerations over “sanctuaries” militants had on Afghan soil. Pakistan, he stated, “will spare no effort to dismantle terrorist networks and protect its citizens at all costs.”

In response, Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban administration spokesman, denied these accusations and stated that “the territory of Afghanistan will not be used against the security of any country.”

The Taliban’s appearing minister of protection, Mawlawi Mohammad Yaqoub, additionally warned former Talib fighters in opposition to launching assaults outdoors of Afghanistan in a speech.

Still, it’s unclear if or how the federal government will implement that mandate — and whether or not it’s going to deter younger Talibs from leaving the nation to combat.

The enlistments have already helped invigorated the T.T.P., an ally of the Taliban motion in Afghanistan that seeks to expel the Pakistan authorities from the nation’s border areas.

The group was all however stamped out almost a decade in the past. But over the previous two years, it has roared again to life. Hundreds of T.T.P. fighters have been free of Afghan prisons throughout the Taliban takeover and armed themselves with American navy gear as soon as offered to the U.S.-backed Afghan authorities, in response to Pakistani authorities and movies revealed by the T.T.P.

In current months, the T.T.P. has additionally begun systematically recruiting Taliban troopers in Afghanistan, in response to Taliban members and safety analysts. Now, anybody excited about becoming a member of its ranks is instructed to hyperlink up with different recruits and T.T.P. fighters in japanese Afghanistan who know the way to cross the border illegally.

In Kabul, Mr. Wahdat and Mr. Malang expressed a way of obligation unfilled after coming of fight age simply because the battle they educated for got here to an finish.

Now, they stated, they have been decided to not let their goals of martyrdom move them by. “Everywhere that Muslims are in trouble we must help them,” Mr. Malang stated. “Like Palestine and Myanmar.”

Mr. Wahdat added: “Even America.”

Zia ur-Rehman contributed reporting.