Pakistan Targets Afghan Border Regions With Another Round Of Air Strikes

Pakistan carried out a round of air strikes on October 1 on two Afghan provinces near the border based on "credible evidence" of militant activity in the area.

Following the strikes on the Kunar and Helmand provinces, Pakistan authorities claimed that 22 militants had been killed, while Afghanistan's Taliban rulers said nine civilians were killed in the attack, including women and children.

Anar Gul, a resident of Helmand’s Garmsir district, told Radio Azadi over the telephone that four of his relatives were killed in the early morning strikes by the Pakistani jets.

They included a boy, two girls, and their mother. Gul said seven others suffered injuries and had been transported to a local hospital, where condition of one child is said to be critical.

"I heard three blasts. In the first two, neighboring houses were hit, while the third one struck my uncle's house."

Islamabad accuses Kabul of harboring Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants who carry out attacks inside Pakistan, a charge the Taliban authorities deny. Pakistani forces have carried out multiple strikes on regions in Afghanistan this year, reportedly killing and injuring over 1,000 civilians and straining already-tense relations between the neighboring countries.

On October 1, the TTP released a statement claiming to have carried out 334 attacks in Pakistan in September.

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The group has ideological ties to the Afghan Taliban, and its members hosted much of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda leadership following 9/11 in its Waziristan sanctuary, just across the border in Pakistan.

In June 2014, the Pakistani military launched a massive operation against the TTP and other militant groups, forcing many of them to retreat into Afghanistan. Weakened but not obliterated, the TTP gradually regained strength after the Taliban seized control of Kabul in August 2021.

Pakistan's Information Ministry wrote on social media about the October 1 strikes on the Afghan border regions, saying on X that they "precisely targeted the terrorist hubs" of the TTP and maintaining that the "threat to Pakistan emanates from Afghanistan."

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, meanwhile, said in a social media post that Pakistani aircrafts had bombed "civilian homes" in Shultan, Kunar, and and Garmser, Helmand. Mujahid said that in addition to the nine people killed, 11 others were injured and three homes destroyed.

Despite conflicting claims by Pakistan and the Taliban authorities, observers say civilians often bear the brunt of hostilities between the two sides.

In a recent report, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said 1,100 civilians have been killed and injured in Afghanistan from cross-border violence so far this year.

In March, a Pakistani air strike that hit a drug rehabilitation center in Kabul killed nearly 150 civilians. The attack drew widespread condemnation, with Human Rights Watch (HRW) calling the attack unlawful and a possible war crime. Pakistan denied targeting the civilian facility.

The October 1 strikes -- the third attack in the past two weeks -- came days after a deadly bomb attack on a police station in northwestern Pakistan on September 18 that killed 31 people, including 16 police officers.

The attack was claimed by another militant group, Ittehad ul Mujahideen, whose leader, Hafiz Gul Bahadar, is believed to be in hiding across the border in Afghanistan.

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Days later, Pakistani jets struck areas in Afghanistan's Kunar, Kandahar, Paktia, Paktika, and Khost provinces on September 21 and 24.

Despite being allies for nearly three decades, relations between Pakistan and the Taliban have become increasingly strained in recent years.

The two sides engaged into an open conflict in October last year after Pakistani air strikes hit the Afghan capital, Kabul, and other areas. The Taliban retaliated by attacking Pakistani border posts along the roughly 2,600-kilometer border, also known as the Durand Line.

The two sides subsequently closed their border crossings following the deadly clashes, bringing cross-border trade and movement to a standstill.

Condemning the latest Pakistani air strikes, former Afghan President Hamid Karzai -- who lives in Kabul under virtual house arrest since the Taliban seized power in 2021 -- urged the Pakistani leadership to "review their belligerent policies and hostile plans."

Instead of "scapegoating and slaughtering Afghan women and children," Pakistan should engage with Afghanistan based on good neighborliness and civilized relations, Karzai wrote on X on October 1.

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Political Turmoil At Home

The latest round of strikes comes amid political turmoil in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a northwestern Pakistani province bordering Afghanistan where the ruling party has announced a march on Islamabad.

The Pakistani capital remains in a state of lockdown and several roads leading to Islamabad have been blocked with shipping containers to prevent supporters of the Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf (PTI) party from entering the city.

The PTI -- the party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is in jail -- holds sway in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The party announced a march on Islamabad on October 4 to demand Khan's release. Khan has been in jail for more than three years on charges of corruption and misuse of authority.

Observers say any escalation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border following the latest strikes could provide an excuse for the central government and the military leadership to impose governor's rule by dissolving the PTI government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.