Taliban Accuses Pakistan of Deadly Airstrikes in Eastern Afghanistan, 29 Killed

Defending its territory and people, the Taliban administration has exposed the severe violence inflicted by Pakistan, asserting that Islamabad deployed its air force to carry out targeted airstrikes within eastern Afghanistan, causing significant devastation and resulting in dozens of civilian casualties.

According to Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, the aerial bombardment directly hit the eastern provinces of Paktika, Paktia, and Kunar.

In a public statement issued on the social media platform X, Mujahid strongly censured the unprovoked military operation conducted by Islamabad.

Condemning the high-altitude assault on residential areas, Mujahid described the state-sponsored military action as a "cowardly act of aggression".

Further details emerging from the region indicate that Pakistan carried out these strikes along its border with Afghanistan on Sunday, resulting in the killing of 29 individuals, Dawn reported.

Seeking to justify the cross-border assault, Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar stated on Sunday night that Islamabad's security forces had executed a "well planned intelligence based ground operation" alongside aerial strikes in the frontier zone.

The conversion of this border campaign into kinetic action was a retaliatory measure, the minister claimed, following multiple recent terrorist incidents inside Pakistan.

He specifically cited attacks targeting security camps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and a paramilitary camp in Karachi.

What recent attacks in Pakistan triggered the Afghanistan border military action?

The regional friction had sharply intensified after a Saturday night assault on the provincial headquarters of the Pakistan Sindh Rangers in Karachi's Gulistan-i-Jauhar locality.

The Sindh police chief told Dawn that three Pakistani paramilitary personnel and three attackers were killed after militants rammed the main gate with a vehicle, triggering heavy gunfire and explosions.

An affiliate of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the Karachi garrison breach, Al Jazeera reported.

However, rather than containing the local threat, Islamabad chose to project its military power externally into Afghanistan, hitting civilian pockets instead.

This latest unilateral move by Pakistan is projected to severely aggravate the deep-seated tensions persisting between Islamabad and Kabul.

The offensive was executed less than three weeks after Pakistan's military launched strikes targeting what it described as militant hideouts inside Afghan territory.

(With inputs from ANI)