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Tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan flared again Tuesday when the Taliban accused Islamabad of launching overnight strikes, reportedly killing 10 civilians, including children.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief spokesperson for the Afghan government, said on X that Pakistan “bombed” the home of a civilian in Khost province. He said additional strikes were carried out in the provinces of Kunar and Paktika, injuring four others.
Mujahid described the attacks as “atrocities,” and said the strikes were “a violation of Afghan territory.” Afghanistan, he added in his post on X, “considers the use of its airspace and territory and defense of its people to be its legitimate right, and at the appropriate time, it will give the necessary response.”
Pakistan’s military and government did not immediately comment on the allegation, which comes more than a month after cross-border clashes erupted when the Afghan government claimed Pakistani drone strikes hit Kabul.
However, the cease-fire brokered by Qatar and Türkiye between the two sides in October was still holding Tuesday despite the alleged overnight strikes by Pakistan deep inside Afghanistan. There was no immediate comment from Qatar and Türkiye.
Iran, in recent weeks, has also offered to play a role in defusing tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Tuesday on X that he met with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar in Islamabad, a day after arriving on a previously scheduled visit. Dar’s office was also expected to release a statement about the meeting.
In Khost, residents combed through the rubble of the destroyed home, retrieving belongings.
“You see the cruelty with your own eyes, that young children, a woman and nine children, were martyred,” said Muhammad Iqbal, who said the dead were his cousin’s family.
Local tribal leader Mer Adam Khan said the attack was carried out by a drone that was flying over the area at around midnight. “It is not known where it came from and by whom,” he said, adding that the home that was destroyed was that of a local man, whom he identified as Shariat Khan.
“He has not interfered in any government. He lives a poor life here,” the tribal leader said.
The latest escalation follows a deadly attack a day earlier in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, where two suicide bombers and a gunman stormed the headquarters of the Federal Constabulary. Three officers were killed and 11 others were wounded in the Monday morning attack.
No group has claimed responsibility for the Peshawar attack, but suspicion quickly fell on the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
It is a separate group but closely allied with the Afghan Taliban and many of its leaders are believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. Kabul in 2022 brokered a brief cease-fire between the TTP and Pakistan. However, the terrorist group ended the truce after accusing Pakistan of violating it.
Pakistan has intensified intelligence-based operations against terrorists in recent weeks.
On Tuesday, the military said security forces killed 30 terrorists during a raid on what it described as a hideout of “Indian-backed” fighters in Bannu, a district in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border.
In a statement, the army referred to the killed insurgents as Khawarij, a term the government and the military use for terrorists they allege are supported by Afghanistan and India. Kabul and New Delhi deny providing any support to such groups.
The statement said Pakistan “will continue at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country.”
Pakistan has repeatedly urged Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to prevent TTP terrorists from using Afghan territory to launch attacks. Kabul denies the accusation, but relations further deteriorated after Afghanistan blamed Pakistan for the Oct. 9 drone strikes on its capital and threatened retaliation.
The clashes that followed killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and terrorists before the sides agreed to the Oct. 19 cease-fire.
Two subsequent rounds of talks in Istanbul failed to resolve the dispute, when Pakistan said Afghanistan had refused to provide a written guarantee that TTP fighters would not operate from Afghan soil.
The Afghan government insists it does not allow anyone to use its soil for attacks against any country, including Pakistan.
The lingering tensions have stalled bilateral trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan, with all border crossings between the two neighbors remaining shut since last month. It has also affected the movement of people, as residents from both sides have been unable to travel to meet with relatives and friends since early October.
