Pakistani airstrikes have killed 46 people in eastern Afghanistan, according to the Taliban, who are threatening reprisals. Islamabad says it has targeted “terrorists”.
Bombings by the Pakistani army in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Paktika killed at least 46 people on Tuesday, most of them children and women, the Taliban government spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Pakistani security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP that Tuesday’s operation aimed to dismantle “terrorist hideouts“, rejecting Taliban claims that civilians had been killed.
According to Islamabad, armed groups, such as the Pakistani Taliban Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), orchestrate attacks from Afghanistan, via a particularly porous border.
Regional tensions risk worsening
The TTP has pledged allegiance to and takes its name from the Afghan Taliban, but is not directly part of the group that currently rules Afghanistan.
Its stated goal is to impose Islamic religious law in Pakistan, as the Taliban did in Afghanistan.
A major TTP attack in Pakistan’s South Waziristan region, which directly adjoins the location of the suspected targeted camp in Afghanistan, killed 16 Pakistani security forces on Saturday.
Since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021, border tensions between the two countries have escalated, with Pakistan claiming that several TTP attacks in its country were launched from Afghan soil, which the Afghan Taliban denies.
Pakistan has seen countless militant attacks over the past two decades, but an upsurge has been seen in recent months.
Additional sources • AP
