Pakistan on Tuesday warned that it will response to any further provocation from Afghanistan “immediately and severely.”
In a post on X, Prime Minister’s spokesperson for foreign media Mosharraf Zaidi noted that the Afghan Taliban regime had “initiated unprovoked firing along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Torkham and Tirah sub-sectors.”
He said Pakistan’s security forces had responded “immediately and effectively, silencing the Taliban aggression.” He went on to warn that any “further provocation will be responded to immediately and severely,” adding Pakistan would continue to protect its citizens and guard its territorial integrity.
Over the weekend, Pakistan targeted terrorist camps and hideouts in the Nangarhar and Paktika provinces of Afghanistan. An official claimed over 80 terrorists were killed in the airstrikes initiated in retaliation to a spate of terrorist attacks across Pakistan, including a suicide bombing at an imambargah in Islamabad.
“Pakistan has conclusive evidence that these acts of terrorism were perpetrated by Khwarij at the behest of their Afghanistan-based leadership and handlers,” read a statement issued by the Information Ministry. It said the intelligence-based airstrikes had targeted seven terrorist camps and hideouts of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its affiliates.
“Despite repeated efforts by Pakistan to urge the Afghan Taliban regime to take verifiable measures to deny use of Afghan territory by terrorist groups and foreign proxies to carry out terrorist activities in Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban regime failed to undertake any substantive action against them,” it added.
Following the airstrikes, the Afghan Defense Ministry issued a statement condemning them. “We will respond to these attacks in due course with a measured and appropriate response,” it said.
Pakistan is currently in the midst of a terror resurgence that began with the return to power of the Afghan Taliban in August 2021. Islamabad has repeatedly urged the Taliban to prevent the use of Afghan soil for terrorism against Pakistan, though most of these appeals have been in vain.
Earlier this month, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif warned that Pakistan would not hesitate to conduct strikes inside Afghanistan if attacks continued from across the border.
The two countries had similarly clashed in October 2024, achieving a tentative ceasefire at the behest of Qatar and Turkiye.