Death toll mounts to 36 in Pakistan air strikes across Afghan border, 163 injured
Pakistan mounted a ground operation in Bajaur and strikes across the Afghan frontier, killing 29 people. The action followed an attempted attack on the Karachi headquarters of Pakistan Rangers earlier in the weekend.
Pakistan's security forces on Sunday carried out what they described as an intelligence-based ground operation near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, followed by what Information Minister Attaullah Tarar called "calibrated strikes" on militant hideouts and safe havens. While Pakistan claimed 29 militants were killed, Afghan authorities said the cross-border air strikes killed at least 36 civilians, including women and children, and injured 163 others.
Tarar said the operation was launched in response to a series of militant attacks across Pakistan. The action came a day after militants armed with guns and explosives attacked the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in Karachi, killing three soldiers.
Security forces killed three attackers during the Karachi assault and arrested another wounded assailant, whom the military identified as an Afghan national. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.
In a post on X, Tarar said the latest operation targeted the hideouts of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fitna al-Khwarij, the term Pakistan uses for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). He said security forces first carried out an intelligence-based ground operation in Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing four militants, including a commander identified as Khan Farosh.
Pakistan further claimed it conducted precision strikes on three alleged militant targets in Afghanistan's Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces, killing 25 militants and destroying weapons caches and safe havens.
AFGHANS SHOW DIFFERENT NUMBERS
However, Afghan authorities presented a sharply different account of the strikes. According to casualty figures released on Sunday, Pakistani fighter jets bombed civilian homes in the three provinces overnight. In Chamkani district of Paktia province, an initial strike on a residential house allegedly killed two civilians, including a child, while a second strike targeting people gathered for rescue operations reportedly killed 28 more villagers and injured 158 others.
Afghan officials also said six civilians, most of them women and children, were killed after a house was bombed in Giyan district of Paktika province. In neighbouring Kunar province's Manogai district, another residential house was reportedly destroyed, although no casualties were reported there.
According to Afghan authorities, the overnight strikes killed 36 civilians and injured 163 others, while three residential houses were completely destroyed.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused Afghanistan's Taliban-led government of providing safe haven to TTP militants responsible for attacks inside Pakistan, a charge Kabul has consistently denied. Islamabad has carried out multiple cross-border strikes over the past year, saying they target militant infrastructure, while Kabul has condemned the operations as violations of Afghan sovereignty.
Pakistan's security forces on Sunday carried out what they described as an intelligence-based ground operation near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, followed by what Information Minister Attaullah Tarar called "calibrated strikes" on militant hideouts and safe havens. While Pakistan claimed 29 militants were killed, Afghan authorities said the cross-border air strikes killed at least 36 civilians, including women and children, and injured 163 others.
Tarar said the operation was launched in response to a series of militant attacks across Pakistan. The action came a day after militants armed with guns and explosives attacked the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in Karachi, killing three soldiers.
Security forces killed three attackers during the Karachi assault and arrested another wounded assailant, whom the military identified as an Afghan national. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.
In a post on X, Tarar said the latest operation targeted the hideouts of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fitna al-Khwarij, the term Pakistan uses for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). He said security forces first carried out an intelligence-based ground operation in Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing four militants, including a commander identified as Khan Farosh.
Pakistan further claimed it conducted precision strikes on three alleged militant targets in Afghanistan's Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces, killing 25 militants and destroying weapons caches and safe havens.
AFGHANS SHOW DIFFERENT NUMBERS
However, Afghan authorities presented a sharply different account of the strikes. According to casualty figures released on Sunday, Pakistani fighter jets bombed civilian homes in the three provinces overnight. In Chamkani district of Paktia province, an initial strike on a residential house allegedly killed two civilians, including a child, while a second strike targeting people gathered for rescue operations reportedly killed 28 more villagers and injured 158 others.
Afghan officials also said six civilians, most of them women and children, were killed after a house was bombed in Giyan district of Paktika province. In neighbouring Kunar province's Manogai district, another residential house was reportedly destroyed, although no casualties were reported there.
According to Afghan authorities, the overnight strikes killed 36 civilians and injured 163 others, while three residential houses were completely destroyed.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused Afghanistan's Taliban-led government of providing safe haven to TTP militants responsible for attacks inside Pakistan, a charge Kabul has consistently denied. Islamabad has carried out multiple cross-border strikes over the past year, saying they target militant infrastructure, while Kabul has condemned the operations as violations of Afghan sovereignty.
