The request comes as the Kissan Ittehad and PTI have announced long marches and sit-ins in Islamabad in the coming week.

PTI has announced a long march on Sept 27 to press for the release of its founder, Imran Khan.

The letter, a copy of which is available with Dawn, said Rangers had been requested for deployment in Rawalpindi, Attock, Jhelum and Mianwali from Sept 22 to Oct 5.

According to a letter sent by the Punjab Home Department to the Ministry of Interior and Narcotics Control, three companies of the Pakistan Rangers have been sought for deployment in Rawalpindi, including one for Rawalpindi city and two for Taxila.

Five Rangers wings have been sought for Attock, while Jhelum and Mianwali have each been allocated one company.

The deployment is proposed under Article 245 of the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973, Sections 4 and 5 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, and Sections 7(b) and 10 of the Pakistan Rangers Ordinance, 1959.

The letter said the matter was discussed threadbare at the 59th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Cabinet on Law & Order (SCCLO) of the Punjab government, held on Sept 20.

The meeting considered the situational review presented by police authorities, the orders of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in Writ Petition No. 4421/2026, and instructions issued by the S&GAD, Government of Punjab, through a letter dated Sept 19, 2026, it stated.

“After due consideration, it was authorised that the requisition be sent to the ministry of interior, for requisition of troops ensuring law and order in the districts mentioned above,” the letter stated.

The letter asked the ministry to take further necessary action and intimate the Punjab Home Department accordingly.

Preparations in the Rawalpindi Division and the federal capital territory to maintain security and deal with any emergency situation are in full swing in light of the potential long march by the PTI and other protests in Islamabad.

More than 22,000 security personnel led by eight DIGs will be deployed in the federal capital and over 30,000 in the Attock district, which connects Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with Punjab.

In Aug, the federal government authorised the deployment of three companies of the Pakistan Army in Rawalpindi for six months to perform “sensitive security duties” and respond to any unforeseen situation.

The deployment was approved more than a month before the planned PTI march towards Islamabad. The party claims that the Sept 27 long march could draw around two million participants.

District administrations in Punjab have previously sought army assistance under Article 245 during Muharram, election periods, and times of heightened terror alerts. With the deployment approved for an initial period of six months “with immediate effect”, the army units will be placed at the disposal of the Rawalpindi district administration and will perform duties as assigned by the civilian authorities

According to security sources, eight drones entered the Pakistani airspace, all of which were shot down by “active and vigilant” air defence systems of the Pakistan armed forces.

“The Pakistan armed forces and the ‘Shaheens’ of the Pakistan Air Force professionally thwarted the Afghan Taliban regime’s cowardly attempt to target public areas,” security sources said.

Four of the eight drones were shot down in areas adjacent to the Torkham border, while the rest were downed near Kohat, as per the sources.

Earlier, the security sources said two “rudimentary” drones were shot down by “soft skill” seven kilometres away from Kohat city and reaffirmed that the armed forces’ air defence systems’ vigilance and professionalism are active around the clock “against all threats from the Kharjistan”.

“This incursion serves as yet another proof of the Afghan Taliban regime’s direct support and patronage of terrorists,” security sources said.

The development comes two days after Pakistan conducted “calibrated” airstrikes in the border region with Afghanistan against terrorist hideouts and safe havens of terrorist organisations responsible for the recent multiple terrorist incidents.

A statement from the information ministry on Monday said that over 28 terrorists were eliminated in the strikes. “It is a matter of grave concern that Afghanistan continues to remain a hub of terrorism,” the ministry said at the time, specifying that the “threat to Pakistan emanates from Afghanistan”.

The airstrikes came after a major attack in the old Police Lines in KP’s Kohat claimed 23 lives and injured about 100 others. Eight terrorists were killed during an overnight clearance operation launched to clear the area.

It should also be mentioned that on Sept 20, two officers and four others were martyred while eight terrorists were eliminated during a fire exchange between a security forces convoy and armed combatants, the military’s media wing said.

In July, the Afghan Taliban regime launched four rudimentary drones across the border into Balochistan, which were shot down by security forces. Two drones were also shot down in June in Qila Abdullah and Chagai districts.

Pak-Afghan ties

Tensions between Islamabad and Kabul have remained high, punctuated by cross-border clashes over the past year.

Islamabad has repeatedly urged the Taliban administration in Kabul to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries on Afghan soil, particularly those linked to the banned TTP, that are used for attacks in Pakistan. Officials say those appeals have gone unheeded.

A day earlier, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar addressed a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and called for steps towards concrete and verifiable action to prevent the use of Afghan soil for terrorism against any neighbouring country, particularly Pakistan.

Dar said Pakistan was “seriously concerned” about the presence of over two dozen terrorist groups in Afghanistan that threatened regional international peace and security.

Last week, Pakistan also told the UN Security Council that it would respond to terrorist threats emanating from Afghanistan in self-defence as and when needed and in accordance with international law.

Earlier this month, the Foreign Office (FO) declared that meaningful progress in relations with Kabul would depend on the Taliban taking concrete and verifiable action against TTP and other terrorist groups operating from Afghan territory.

It maintained that while Islamabad welcomed China’s continuing engagement, the external facilitation could not substitute for action by Kabul against terrorist infrastructure.

According to a UN Security Council-mandated monitoring report — covering the period from Dec 16, 2025 to June 9, 2026 — Afg­han Taliban’s continued support for TTP has contributed to a rise in the frequency and lethality of terrorist attacks in Pakistan, even as Kabul has taken some initial steps to rein in the group.

The report also pointed to growing operational and facilitation linkages among the TTP, Al Qaeda, Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIL-K) and the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).