Listen to this article
Average 4 minutes
The audio version of this article was created by AI-based technology. It can be mispronounced. We are working with our partners to continuously review and improve the results.
Islamabad said it had carried out strikes along the border with Afghanistan earlier Sunday, targeting what it called a hideout by Pakistani forces it blamed for recent attacks inside Pakistan. The Afghan Red Crescent Society said more than ten people had died.
Pakistan did not specify the targets, but the Afghan Ministry of Defense said in a statement that “various civilian areas” in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Paktika had been hit, including a religious madrassa and several civilian homes.
The statement called the strikes a violation of Afghanistan’s airspace and sovereignty.
Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said earlier on social media platform X that the attack “killed and injured dozens, including women and children.”
Mawlawi Fazl Rahman Fayyaz, provincial director of the Afghan Red Crescent Society in Nangarhar province, said 18 people were killed and many others were injured.
Pakistan’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, wrote in X that the army had carried out “intelligence-based, selective operations” against seven camps of the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and its affiliates. He said that an organization affiliated with the Islamic State group was also targeted.
Tarar said Pakistan “always strives to maintain peace and stability in the region” but added that the safety and security of Pakistan’s citizens remains a top priority.
Pakistan has seen an increase in militant violence in recent years, much of it blamed on the TTP and banned Baloch separatist groups. The TTP is separate from but closely allied with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Islamabad accuses the TTP of operating inside Afghanistan, a charge the group and Kabul deny.
The dead have invaded Pakistan
Hours before the Pakistani strike, a suicide bomber bombed a security post in Pakistan’s northwestern Bannu district, killing two soldiers, including a lieutenant-colonel.
Pakistan’s military warned after the attack that it would “not hold back” and that the operation against those responsible would continue.
Another suicide bomber, backed by gunmen, rammed a car full of explosives last week into the wall of a security area in Bajaur district in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, bordering Afghanistan, killing 11 soldiers and a child. Pakistani authorities later said the attacker was an Afghan national.
Tarar said Pakistan has “overwhelming evidence” that recent attacks – including a suicide bombing that targeted a Shiite mosque in Islamabad and killed 31 worshipers earlier this month – were carried out by terrorists acting “on the orders of the leadership and their handlers in Afghanistan.”
The information minister said that Pakistan has also urged the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan to take concrete steps to prevent terrorist groups from using Afghan territory to attack Pakistan, but he alleged that no serious steps have been taken.
Tarar also asked the international community to pressure the Taliban authorities of Afghanistan to uphold their obligations under the Doha agreement not to allow their soil to be used to fight other countries.
Qatar’s ceasefire between the two countries came after deadly clashes along the border in October, killing scores of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants.
The violence followed an explosion in Kabul that Afghan officials blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad, at the time, carried out strikes deep into Afghanistan to target militant hideouts.
An agreement between Islamabad and Kabul has taken a lot of hold, but several talks in Istanbul in November failed to produce a formal agreement, and relations remain strained.
