Pakistani Forces Kill 36 Civilians in Afghanistan, Tensions Escalate

KABUL, Afghanistan — Pakistani forces' ground operations and strikes killed at least 36 civilians in Afghanistan overnight and wounded more than 160 others, Afghan officials said Monday, as tensions between the neighbors escalated. One Afghan official said the attacks would be met with retaliation. Pakistan said the operations were launched in response to militant attacks across Pakistan. Security forces carried out a ground operation along the border late Sunday, followed by strikes against militant hideouts and safe havens, killing 29 fighters, Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said. Afghanistan condemned the strikes in Paktia, Paktika, and Kunar provinces as a "cowardly act of aggression" and an "act of brutality." Hayatullah Mohajer Farahi, the deputy minister for publications at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said Afghanistan would respond "in due time." Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesperson for Afghanistan's Taliban government, said Pakistani forces targeted a home in Paktia's Chamkani district, killing an older man and a child, while other family members were wounded. When residents gathered to rescue people, the area was struck again, killing 28 villagers and wounding 158, he said. Six people, mostly women and children, were killed in a village in Giyan district, Paktika province, when another home was struck, he said. A civilian home in Kunar province was also hit, causing no casualties but killing some 30 livestock. Pakistani officials said an uneasy calm prevailed along the border Monday, with security forces remaining on high alert. Envoys are summoned over the attacks On Monday, Afghanistan and Pakistan summoned each other's top diplomats to protest the attacks. Zia Ahmad Takal, the Afghanistan Foreign Ministry's deputy spokesperson, accused Islamabad of repeatedly blaming Afghanistan for security incidents inside Pakistan without "credible evidence." Pakistan's behavior "seriously harms the atmosphere of trust between the two countries, good neighborly relations and the security and stability of the region," Takal said. Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it summoned Afghanistan's top diplomat in Islamabad to protest the involvement of Afghan nationals in recent attacks, including one in Karachi over the weekend. Militant attacks targeting Pakistan's police and security forces have surged in recent years. Authorities have blamed the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, and allied militant groups for most of the violence. The Pakistani Taliban are separate from but allied with the Afghan Taliban that returned to power in 2021. Tarar, the Pakistani information minister, shared three videos on X that he said showed projectiles striking sprawling camps and safe havens of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fitna al-Khawarij in Afghanistan's Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces. Tarar said the overnight strikes killed "terrorists" and destroyed weapons and ammunition stockpiles. Pakistan uses the phrase "Khawarij" to refer to Indian-backed Pakistani Taliban and other militants. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar is a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban. Tarar said Pakistan's counter-terrorism campaign "will continue at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country." India, however, denied any involvement, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal calling the statements "baseless allegations." Pakistan should "look inwards, take credible action against the terror infrastructure on its territory," he said. Pakistan launches operation after assault in Karachi The Pakistani security operation followed a militant attack targeting the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in Karachi that killed three soldiers. Security forces killed three attackers and arrested another assailant, whom the military identified as a wounded Afghan national. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack. Officials in Pakistan claimed one Afghan suspect was captured following the attack, saying that "Afghan soil and Afghan nationals continue to be used to orchestrate terrorist attacks inside Pakistan." Police later released the statement of the wounded Afghan detainee, who said the Karachi attack was planned by Jamaat‑ul‑Ahrar, though it was unclear if the confession was made under duress. Sunday's cross-border strikes and ground operation came less than three weeks after Pakistan's military launched airstrikes on what it said were militant hideouts in Afghanistan. They ended about a month of relative calm following what Islamabad had described as an "open war" between the neighboring countries, despite international efforts to broker a lasting peace. The escalation follows months of military action. Hundreds of people have been killed in cross-border fighting since February, when Afghanistan launched retaliatory strikes after Pakistan carried out airstrikes inside Afghan territory.