Pakistan says it killed 29 militants on Afghan border
Pakistani security forces carried out an “intelligence-based” ground operation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, followed by “orchestrated attacks” on militant hideouts and safe havens, killing 29 fighters, officials said.
The military did not explain how Sunday’s attacks were carried out, but Pakistan’s air force has previously been involved in targeting alleged militant hideouts in Afghanistan.
Minister of Information Attaullah Tarar said in a post on X that the operation was launched in response to multiple militant attacks across the country. There was no immediate response from Afghanistan.
This came a day after militants armed with guns and explosives targeted the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in the southern port city of Karachi, killing three soldiers.
Security forces killed three attackers and arrested another attacker, whom the army identified as a wounded Afghan national.
Jamaat-ul Ahrar, the separatist group of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack in a statement on Saturday night.
Tarar said Pakistan’s latest operation on the Afghan border targeted hideouts and safe havens of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fitnah al-Harij, a term used by Pakistan for the Pakistani Taliban.
Pakistan has witnessed an increase in militant attacks targeting police and security forces in recent years.
Authorities blamed the Pakistani Taliban and allied militant groups, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, for much of the violence.
The TTP is a separate militant group from the Afghan Taliban, although the two are allies. The Afghan Taliban returned to power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.
The latest operations are expected to further strain the already tense relations between Islamabad and Kabul.
Sunday’s cross-border attacks and ground operation came less than three weeks after the Pakistani military launched airstrikes on what it said were militant hideouts in Afghanistan.
They ended nearly a month of relative calm following what Islamabad described as “open war” between neighboring countries, despite international efforts to broker a lasting peace.
Afghanistan said the attacks on June 10 hit the eastern provinces of Khost, Kunar and Pktika. Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said 13 people were killed, including 11 children, one woman and one elderly person. Pakistan has denied targeting civilian areas, saying its strikes targeted militant hideouts and infrastructure linked to recent attacks inside Pakistan and that 26 militants were killed.
This latest increase comes after months of tit-for-tat military action between the two countries. Hundreds of people have been killed in cross-border clashes since February, when Afghanistan launched retaliatory strikes after Pakistan carried out airstrikes on Afghan territory.
