Kabul: Afghanistan’s Taliban government said on Wednesday that its forces conducted airstrikes targeting Islamic State positions inside neighbouring Pakistan’s Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
Kabul-based TOLO News, citing local sources, reported the strikes were carried out by drones and struck ISIS locations and facilities believed to have been used to plan and coordinate attacks on Afghan civilians along the border.
ISIS Sites In Pakistan Hit
The report said one of the strikes hit a school in the Saranan area that Afghan authorities allege was being exploited by ISIS and other groups described as “agents of chaos and violence.”
The regional branch of the Islamic State, known as Islamic State-Khorasan, has taken responsibility for multiple deadly attacks inside Afghanistan in recent years that targeted civilians, as reported by Mint.
Pakistan’s Reaction
Pakistan confirmed it had detected hostile aerial activity but said it intercepted and shot down “four rudimentary drones” that crossed into Balochistan from Afghanistan.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said Pakistan’s air-defence network quickly identified the incoming platforms and, “Demonstrating a high level of operational readiness, the security forces successfully neutralised all four incoming drones using sophisticated countermeasures. As a result of the swift and effective response, the hostile attempts were successfully foiled.”
The statement also criticised the Afghan Taliban, saying Islamabad had once “nurtured and sheltered the Taliban following their ouster in 2001 until the insurgent group regained control of Afghanistan in 2021,” and accused the movement of misleading Afghans suffering under its rule.
“Such actions by the Afghan Taliban regime appear to be aimed at misleading the Afghan population, which continues to suffer under its oppressive rule. The Taliban should realise that such irresponsible behaviour only adds to the hardships faced by the Afghans,” the ISPR added.
Pakistan’s Air Operation In Afghanistan
The Taliban’s strikes inside Pakistan came days after Pakistan launched operations across the frontier, including airstrikes, that Islamabad said killed at least 29 militants during combined ground and air actions along the border. The Afghan Taliban countered that the Pakistani strikes killed at least 38 civilians.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of providing sanctuary to militants blamed for plotting attacks inside Pakistan; the Afghan Taliban rejects those claims and says militancy is Pakistan’s internal problem.
In response to Pakistan’s cross-border strikes, Afghanistan’s foreign ministry on Monday summoned the Pakistani Charge d’Affaires in Kabul to deliver a “strong and resolute protest.”
A statement posted on X by the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Kabul conveyed its protest over what it described as violations of Afghanistan’s airspace and the bombing of civilian homes in Kunar, Paktia and Paktika provinces.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Charge d’Affaires of the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul and presented him with its strong and resolute protest regarding the violation of Afghanistan’s airspace and the bombing of civilian homes in the provinces of Kunar, Paktia, and Paktika,” the statement read.
