Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
13-06-2026
By SJA Jafri + Agencies
ISLAMABAD/ KABUL: Pakistan has launched deadly air strikes along its border with Afghanistan, breaking months of relative calm in the restive region.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Wednesday that four targets had been destroyed in “calibrated strikes” that had killed 26 militants. Afghanistan’s Taliban government earlier said 13 people, including 11 children, were killed in Pakistani strikes in three provinces.
Pakistan has long accused Afghanistan of harboring terrorists who carry out attacks on Pakistani soil, a claim the Taliban government rejects.
The latest escalation is the first since February, when fighting at the border left hundreds dead.
The two countries had agreed a ceasefire last October following weeks of deadly clashes. Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the strikes were in response to “recent terrorist incidents in Pakistan” and that they targeted “hideouts and safe havens” on the border, including a training centre and an ammunition cache. “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,” Tarar said. Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said earlier that Pakistani strikes had hit targets in the provinces of Kunar, Khost and Paktika.
He said “11 children, one woman and one elderly man were killed” in the strikes.
Apart from denying Pakistan’s allegation that it had been providing safe harbor to militants, Afghanistan’s government has repeatedly said its territory is not being used to threaten the security of other countries.
There have been sporadic clashes since the heavy fighting in late February and world leaders have called on the two nations to cease hostilities.
Why are Afghanistan and Pakistan fighting?
Residents of Kabul’s District 6 were awakened abruptly on Thursday night by the sound of an explosion that shook their homes. They rushed out in the street and heard jets flying overhead.
It was a night that saw a serious escalation in violence between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with Pakistan launching airstrikes in Afghanistan including its capital city, Kabul. Other places struck were in Paktia and Kandahar provinces, the latter a stronghold and the birthplace of the Taliban movement.
Hostilities between the two sides have been ongoing for months, yet the answer to who started the aggression depends on who you ask.
Earlier in the night, Afghanistan’s Taliban government said it had launched a major ground operation against Pakistani military positions near the border, claiming to have captured several posts, and also claiming to have captured and killed Pakistani soldiers.
The Taliban government says they were “retaliatory operations”, a response after “Pakistani military elements carried out an incursion into Afghan territory, violated Afghan sovereignty, and caused the deaths of several civilians, including women and children”. They were referring to an earlier round of Pakistani airstrikes carried out less than a week ago, on the night of 21 February, targeting the eastern Nangarhar and Paktika provinces. The United Nations has said it has credible reports that 13 Afghan civilians were killed in those strikes.
Islamabad has a different view. It says its airstrikes have not targeted civilians but instead have targeted militant hideouts in Afghanistan, specifically those of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or the Pakistani Taliban, which Pakistan’s government refers to as Fitna al Khawarij.
