Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan said on Sunday it had carried out strikes against multiple militant hideouts along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region.
Islamabad did not say precisely which areas it targeted or provide additional details.
The Taliban authorities in Kabul said the Pakistani strikes had killed and wounded ‘dozens of people’.
“Last night, they bombed our civilian compatriots in Nangarhar and Paktika provinces, martyring and wounding dozens of people, including women and children,” local media quoted Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid as saying.
‘Camps belonged to TTP, affiliates’
Pakistan ‘has carried out intelligence-based selective targeting of seven terrorist camps and hideouts’, a statement by the country’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said.
It noted that the camps belonged to the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, and its affiliates.
Pakistan said the strikes were carried out in response to recent security incidents in the country, including a suicide blast at a Shiite mosque in Islamabad two weeks ago and other more recent suicide bombings in northwest Pakistan.
The mosque bombing killed at least 31 people and wounded more than 160.
It was the deadliest attack in Pakistan’s capital since the 2008 Marriott hotel bombing.
An affiliate of the so-called ‘Islamic State’ group had claimed responsibility for the bombing.
After the latest suicide bombings, Pakistan’s military warned that it would not ‘exercise any restraint’ and that operations against those responsible would continue ‘irrespective of their location’.
What’s behind tensions?
Pakistan has seen a surge in militant violence in recent years.
Islamabad blames Afghan-based elements for the attacks and has accused the Taliban of allowing Afghan soil to be used to harbour militants.
Pakistan wants Kabul to clamp down on the TTP, which is a separate group but closely linked to the Afghan Taliban.
The TTP seeks to impose a hard-line interpretation of Islam, particularly on Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan.
According to Pakistan’s government, the group operates from Afghan soil with impunity.
The Afghan Taliban deny the allegations and say they cannot be held accountable for security incidents inside Pakistan.
Fierce fighting erupted between the Pakistani military and Afghan Taliban forces last October, marking the deadliest conflict between the neighbours since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021.
The clashes killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants.
Relations between the neighbouring countries have remained tense ever since.
DW
