Afghan Taliban Strikes 'Several Points' In Pakistan In Retaliation For Airstrikes That Killed 46

Last Updated:December 28, 2024, 17:39 IST

Pakistani strikes targeting "terrorist hideouts" in an eastern border region of Afghanistan killed 46 civilians, the Taliban government said on Wednesday.

Taliban security personnel stand guard at the site two days after air strikes by Pakistan in Afghanistan's Paktika province. (AFP)

Afghan Taliban forces targeted “several points" in neighbouring Pakistan, Afghanistan’s defence ministry said on Saturday, days after Pakistani aircraft carried out aerial bombardment inside Afghanistan.

The statement from the Defence Ministry did not specify Pakistan but said the strikes were conducted “beyond the ‘hypothetical line'" – an expression used by Afghan authorities to refer to a border with Pakistan that they have long disputed.

“Several points beyond the hypothetical line, serving as centres and hideouts for malicious elements and their supporters who organised and coordinated attacks in Afghanistan, were targeted in retaliation from the southeastern direction of the country," the ministry said.

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Afghanistan has for decades rejected the border, known as the Durand Line, drawn by British colonial authorities in the 19th century through the mountainous and often lawless tribal belt between what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan.

No details of casualties or specific areas targeted were provided. The Pakistani military’s public relations wing and a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Afghan authorities warned on Wednesday they would retaliate after the Pakistani bombardment, which they said had killed civilians. Islamabad said it had targeted hideouts of Islamist militants along the border.

The neighbours have a strained relationship, with Pakistan saying that several militant attacks that have occurred in its country have been launched from Afghan soil – a charge the Afghan Taliban denies.

Earlier, a Pakistani paramilitary soldier was killed and seven others wounded in cross-border exchanges of fire with Afghanistan’s forces, a security source said Saturday, while hundreds of Afghans protested against the deadly air strikes that sparked the clashes.

Sporadic fighting, including with heavy weaponry, erupted overnight between border forces on the frontier between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan and Khost province in Afghanistan, officials from both countries said.

Kabul, Afghanistan

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