HighLights
  1. Pakistan launched airstrikes in Afghanistan, killing civilians.
  2. Taliban condemned attacks, reporting 35 civilian deaths.
  3. Pakistan cited militant hideouts and Karachi attack response.

Pakistani security forces have again carried out a deadly attack on innocent civilians in neighbouring Afghanistan, killing scores of women and children. The fresh attack came on Sunday, which Islamabad dubbed as an action against militant hideouts and safe havens. It claimed to have killed at least 29 “fighters”.

Contrary to claims, Afghanistan’s Taliban government has put out images of women and children killed and injured in the attack. It said those who were killed were mostly women and children.

“The aggressor Pakistani army once again launched airstrikes on civilians in the Jani districts of Paktika, Samkani in Paktia, and Manora in Konar, resulting in the martyrdom and injury of dozens of civilians, including women and children,” Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesperson, said on X.

“We condemn this aggression and cowardly act in the strongest terms, and consider it a crime and a barbaric act,” he added, sharing pictures of children injured in the attack.

Pakistan claims the attack is in response to the Karachi explosion

Meanwhile, in a post on X, Pakistan Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the operation was launched in response to multiple militant attacks across the country.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks targeting police and security forces in recent years. Authorities have blamed the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, and allied militant groups for most of the violence.

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It comes 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 assailant, whom the military identified as an Afghan national in wounded condition.

Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack in a statement Saturday night. Tarar said Pakistan's latest operation along the Afghan border targeted hideouts and safe havens of the Pakistani Taliban.

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The Pakistani Taliban are a separate militant group from the Afghan Taliban, although the two are allies. The Afghan Taliban returned to power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021. The latest operations are likely to further strain already tense relations between Islamabad and Kabul.

(With inputs from agency)

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