The military of Pakistan conducted a series of air raids on the Barmal district of Paktika province in Afghanistan, near Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. This time the attacks directly targeted seven villages, including Laman in Afghanistan. Bombardment by Pakistan’s military aircraft killed 46 people, including women and children, and the toll is expected to rise. Murg Bazaar Village has been completely destroyed. The Defense Ministry of the Taliban reprehended the airstrikes and called it ‘barbaric’ and an act of ‘clear aggression.’
Pakistan accuses its neighbor, the Afghan Taliban, of harboring and giving shelter to the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has increased its attacks on Pakistani forces in recent months. The interim Afghan government, ruled by the Taliban, insisted that mostly civilians had been targeted in this attack.
Pakistan has been repeatedly accusing the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan of harboring armed groups. Pakistan’s western border has been battling the ongoing struggle with a resurgence of militant violence since the Taliban has returned to power in 2021. Kabul has denied all allegations and has long pledged to evict foreign militant groups from Afghan soil.
46 dead bodies of civilians discovered, toll likely to rise
Enayatullah Khwarazmi said they have recovered the dead bodies of many Waziristani refugees that had been martyred and rubbished accusations of Pakistan. Waziristani refugees are civilians that had been displaced due to military operations in tribal areas of Pakistan.
However, a senior Pakistan security official has said in his statement that the strikes were only on the “terrorist hideouts” and that they had managed to kill at least 20 militants from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) with the use of jets and drones.
The Taliban Defense Ministry has warned that the Islamic Emirate will not spare this cowardly act by Pakistan, since defending its territory and sovereignty is its inalienable right. Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry in Kabul strongly protested against the attack and said that the strikes were carried out by the army of Pakistan to “create mistrust in the relations between the two countries,” that too while a representative of the civilian government of Pakistan was engaging in dialogue with the Afghan officials.
Pakistan convinced that terrorists had been targeted
The bilateral ties and relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have become strained due to continuous cross-border attacks. Pakistan officials earlier said in a statement that terrorist groups like TTP are a collective threat to regional peace and security and that Pakistan also seeks to work towards mutual understanding and peace. They wish to look for joint solutions in countering terrorism and to further prevent any terrorist organization from sabotaging bilateral relations with Afghanistan.
For years Pakistan has come across as a patron of the Afghan Taliban that first rose to power in 1966 and was also responsible for its sheltering, funding, and diplomatic shielding. Sami Yousafzai, a journalist, described the tense Pakistan-Afghanistan relations as a fight between two cousins.
