Tensions between the two countries have increased after Pakistan carried out airstrikes in the border areas of Afghanistan.
Afghan officials say that more than 20 people, including women and children, were killed in the attacks, while Pakistan maintains that the operation was carried out against the hideouts of terrorist groups.
According to Pakistan’s Ministry of Information, the operation was carried out based on intelligence, in which seven hideouts of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and ISIS Khorasan located in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan were targeted.
Pakistan has claimed that the extremist leadership in Afghanistan was involved behind the recent suicide attacks in Islamabad, Bajaur and Bannu. A lieutenant colonel and a soldier were killed in the attack in Bannu on February 21.
He said that the Afghan Taliban government was repeatedly told to prevent terrorist groups from using its territory. The operation was a “defensive measure against terrorists.”
Pakistan also called on the international community to pressure the Afghan Taliban to fulfill their obligations under the Doha agreement.
Officials in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province told BBC Pashto that an attack on the house of a man named Shahabuddin in the Gardi Kech area of Behsud district killed around 20 people, including women and children.
A member of the affected family said:
“My children, my brother, my husband and my virgin daughters were all killed.”
Nangarhar police spokesman Syed Tayyab Hammad told Tolo News that 23 members of the same family had been killed and only four people had been pulled from the rubble so far.
Attacks were also reported from Khogyani and Ghani Khel districts of Nangarhar.
An air strike was also carried out late at night in Barmal district of Paktika, targeting a madrassa.
The madrasa was closed due to Ramadan, so there were no casualties, but the building and books were severely damaged.
Videos circulating on social media show part of the madrasa building destroyed.
The Afghan Ministry of Defense condemned the attacks in Nangarhar and Paktika, saying:
These attacks are a violation of Afghanistan’s national sovereignty. Pakistan targeted civilian areas. “A strong response will be given at the appropriate time.”
Spokesperson Inayatullah Khawarizmi said the attacks were “a violation of international law and the principles of good neighborliness.”
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also said Pakistani generals were “trying to blame Afghanistan for their security failures.”
Pakistan said the attacks were against terrorist groups, while Afghanistan claims civilians were killed in the attacks.
Statements from both countries have further heightened tensions in the region, and the Taliban’s announcement of “retaliatory action” has made the situation even more sensitive.
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