Islamabad: Pakistan carried out strikes on seven sites along its border with Afghanistan, targeting hideouts of Afghan-based militant group it blames for the recent suicide attacks, Islamabad said on Sunday.
Citing three attacks since the start of Ramadan, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, in a statement posted on X before dawn on Sunday, said Pakistan “carried out intelligence-based selective targeting of seven Terrorist camps and hideouts belonging to Pakistani Taliban”, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and its affiliates in the border region.
Pakistan had also targeted an affiliate of the Islamic State group, he said, without indicating where the strikes were carried out.
However, Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has claimed that Pakistan bombed Afghanistan’s “civilian compatriots in Nangarhar and Paktika provinces, martyring and wounding dozens of people, including women and children”.
In October, Pakistan had also conducted strikes deep inside Afghanistan to target militant hideouts.
According to Minister Tarar, these strikes were carried out in response to a suicide blast at a Shiite mosque in Islamabad two weeks ago and other more recent suicide bombings in northwest Pakistan, including one on Saturday.
The Islamic State group had claimed responsibility for the mosque bombing, which killed at least 40 people and wounded more than 160 in the deadliest attack on Islamabad since the 2008 Marriott hotel bombing.
Hours before the latest border strikes, a suicide bomber targeted a security convoy in the nearby Bannu district in the northwest, killing two soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel.
This occurred only days after a suicide bomber, backed by gunmen, rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the wall of a security post in Bajaur district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. The blast caused part of the compound to collapse, killing 11 soldiers and a child, and authorities later said the attacker was an Afghan national.
After Saturday’s violence, Pakistan’s military had warned that it would not “exercise any restraint” and that operations against those responsible would continue “irrespective of their location,” language that suggested rising tensions between Islamabad and Kabul.
Pakistan said that despite its repeated requests, Kabul’s Taliban authorities failed to act against militant groups using Afghan territory to carry out attacks in Pakistan.
“Pakistan has always strived for maintaining peace and stability in the region, but at the same time, the safety and security of our citizens remains our top priority,” it said.
Pakistan also called on the international community to urge Kabul to fulfil its commitments not to support hostile actions against other countries, under the Doha agreement reached last year.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have been locked in an increasingly bitter dispute since the Taliban authorities retook control in Kabul in 2021.
The relationship between the two countries has deteriorated sharply with deadly border clashes in recent months. More than 70 people were killed, and hundreds were wounded in the October clashes, which ended with a ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey.
But several subsequent rounds of talks in Doha and Istanbul have failed to produce a lasting deal.
Security issues are at the heart of the conflict, with Islamabad accusing Kabul of harbouring militant groups, particularly the Pakistani Taliban, that launch attacks on its soil.
The Taliban government in Kabul denies the allegations.
