Pakistan strikes 10 locations in Afghanistan in response to drone attacks

Pakistan said early Thursday it carried out airstrikes on 10 sites in Afghanistan that it claimed were used to launch drone attacks against Pakistan a day earlier, marking a sharp escalation between the neighbours that threatens mediation efforts by regional powers. The fresh strike came days after Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan’s Kunar and Paktika provinces killed three civilians.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar announced the strikes on X after officials said Afghanistan’s Taliban forces had launched eight drones and shelled Pakistani border posts. The officials said the attacks came after Pakistani troops foiled what they described as an attempted cross-border infiltration by militants.

There was no immediate response from Kabul to Pakistan’s latest strikes inside Afghanistan.

Pakistan strikes in response to Afghanistan’s drone attacks 

According to Dawn, Tarar, in a post on X, said that the latest strikes were conducted in response to drones launched from Afghanistan a day earlier. He said the targets were locations allegedly used for launching and storing the drones. “In exercise of its sovereign right to self-defence, Pakistan conducted precision aerial and drone strikes against 10 locations in Afghanistan used for launching and storing these drones,” Tarar said.

Tarar said that the strikes were “deliberate, precise, calibrated and proportionate and strictly limited to identified military objectives directly linked to the attempted attacks against Pakistan”.

“Threats, denials or attempts to deflect responsibility by Afghan Taliban will neither alter the facts nor constrain Pakistan’s inherent right to defend its territory, its people and its national security,” he said.

The minister warned that Pakistan would neither accept nor tolerate attacks launched from Afghan territory, whether by terrorist groups or by the Afghan Taliban authorities. He said any violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty would be met with an immediate and decisive response.

He also said that Pakistan condemns in the strongest possible terms the deliberate and unlawful incursion into Pakistan by drones on September 23, launched from Afghan territory, which “constitutes a blatant violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and is a grave and unacceptable act of aggression.”

Pakistan called on the Afghan Taliban authorities to immediately cease all hostile activities against Pakistan and fulfil their international obligations by taking ‘effective, concrete, verifiable and sustained action’ against terrorist groups operating from Afghan territory.

“Afghan territory must not be used to launch attacks or conduct hostile operations against Pakistan,” according to the statement.

Afghanistan vowed an appropriate response

Earlier on September 21, Afghanistan had vowed an “appropriate response” to Pakistani airstrikes in Kunar and Paktika provinces. Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid accused the Pakistani military of targeting civilian areas and described the strikes as a repetition of what he called “crimes” against Afghanistan.

In a post on X, Mujahid said three civilians were killed and four others wounded in Kunar, while a house and a local shop were damaged in an attack in Paktika. He said there were no casualties reported in the Paktika incident. “We condemn this aggression and oppression and consider it a repetition of crimes. Pakistan’s military establishment, in order to divert attention from its own internal security failures, has once again committed such a crime. Afghans will give an appropriate response to this aggression, God willing,” he added.

Relations between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban have deteriorated amid allegations by Islamabad that Kabul has failed to take action against Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants, who Pakistan says use Afghan territory to train and carry out attacks inside the country.

The airstrikes followed a major attack at the old Police Lines in Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which claimed 23 lives and left around 100 people injured. Eight terrorists were killed during an overnight clearance operation to secure the area.

(With ANI, PTI inputs)

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