Eight civilians were killed Monday in “reckless” air strikes by Pakistan’s military in the border regions of Afghanistan, prompting Afghan forces to retaliate against Pakistani military outposts, Taliban officials said. Border tensions between the two countries have risen since the Taliban government seized power in 2021, with Islamabad claiming militant groups are carrying out regular attacks from Afghanistan.
The neighboring countries have traded blame over who is responsible for a recent spate of Islamist militant attacks in Pakistan. Pakistan says the attacks were launched from Afghan soil; Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban deny this.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan does not allow anyone to compromise security by using Afghan territory,” Zabiullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban administration, said in a statement. The strikes killed five women and three children in the eastern border provinces of Khost and Paktika, he added.
In a statement, the Pakistani foreign office said Pakistan had carried out “intelligence-based anti-terrorist operations in the border regions inside Afghanistan”.
It did not specify what kind of operations they were. Still, it said they targeted members of The Hafiz Gulf Bahadur militant group after an attack on a military post in Pakistan on Saturday.
In a separate statement, the Taliban defense ministry said its security forces had targeted Pakistani troops at the border in response to the airstrikes.
The Taliban foreign office said it had called in Pakistan’s head of mission to condemn the attacks to him.
Despite Pakistan’s historical support for the Afghan Taliban and its perception of the Taliban’s victory as its own, tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan have reached new heights since the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The Afghan Taliban’s takeover has supported militant groups in the region, including the TTP, providing them with enhanced organization, haven, and material support, which has led to a surge in violent and targeted attacks within Pakistan. Given the Afghan Taliban’s ties to transnational terror and extremist groups, tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan are virtually unavoidable from a security standpoint.
Moreover, the intricate relationship between the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani establishment complicates matters further. First, Pakistan has historically viewed the Afghan Taliban as a proxy aligned with its strategic interests. However, disagreements and unmet expectations between the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan regarding support and recognition lead to displays of power by the Afghan Taliban, often through its connections with the TTP and other militant factions. Second, the long-term relationship between the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban adds another layer of complexity. The support provided by the Pakistani Taliban to its Afghan counterpart in the past has created expectations of reciprocity, especially now that the Afghan Taliban holds significant power and resources.
