The Taliban government of Afghanistan accused Pakistan of launching overnight airstrikes in three eastern provinces, killing 10 civilians, including nine children, in a sign of worsening tensions between the two neighbours.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief spokesperson for the Afghan government, said on X yesterday that Pakistan “bombed” the home of a civilian in Khost province, killing nine children and a woman.
He said additional strikes were carried out in the provinces of Kunar and Paktika, injuring four others.
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 ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkiye between the two sides in October was still holding yesterday despite the alleged overnight strikes by Pakistan deep inside Afghanistan.
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 (TTP).
It is a separate group but closely allied with the Afghan Taliban, and many of its leaders are hiding in Afghanistan.
Kabul in 2022 brokered a brief ceasefire between the TTP and Pakistan.
However, the group ended the truce after accusing Pakistan of violating it.
Pakistan has intensified intelligence-based operations against militants in recent weeks.
Yesterday, the military said security forces killed 22 insurgents 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.
Pakistan has repeatedly urged Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to prevent TTP insurgents from using Afghan territory to launch attacks.
Kabul denies the accusation, and, in recent years, has said that it does not allow anyone to use its soil for attacks against any country. — AP
