Pakistan claims to have hit 10 locations in Afghanistan used in attacks

Pakistan has repeatedly accused the Taliban government of allowing networks of Islamic fundamentalist militants to operate from their territory and carry out attacks across the border, an accusation Kabul denies.

“ Instead of dismantling these networks and taking credible and verifiable measures against those using Afghan territory to carry out acts of terrorism against Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban regime chose to scale the situation through hostile drone operations against Pakistan,” said Pakistani Minister of Information.

“ The attacks were deliberate, precise, calibrated and proportional, strictly limited to identified military targets and directly linked to attempts to attack Pakistan,” added Attaullah Tarar, on social network X.

A resident of Kandahar, where the supreme leader of the Taliban authorities lives, told the news agency France-Presse that the city, located in the south of the country, was attacked.

The witness heard the noise of a jet plane, followed by a massive explosion, and witnessed a fire at the center of Afghanistan’s second largest city, where the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, resides.

The announcement came one day from Pakistan to accuse Afghan Taliban forces of launching eight rudimentary drones against Kohat city in the northwest and the border town of Torkham, which were neutralized.

Islamabad authorities also claimed that Afghan Taliban forces fired mortars and other heavy weapons at border posts, shortly after Pakistani troops frustrated what they described as an attempt by militants to cross the border.

Also on Wednesday, the spokesperson of the Taliban government, Zabihullah Mujahid, denied that the Afghan forces had carried out any attack.

The contradictory statements arose two days after Pakistani fighters hit locations in eastern Afghanistan that, according to Islamabad, served as a hiding place for militants.

The new escalation of tension threatens the mediation efforts led by China, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to achieve a lasting peace between Kabul and Islamabad.

In the margins of the annual session of the UN General Assembly in New York, Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar expressed concern about what he described as the presence of more than two dozen anti-Pakistan militant groups in Afghanistan.

Pakistani Taliban, formally known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, intensified attacks on Pakistan’s security forces, driven by the return of Afghan Taliban to power in Afghanistan in 2021.