By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan on Tuesday summoned Pakistan’s chargé d’affaires in Kabul to protest what it claimed as Pakistani strikes this week on civilian areas and public infrastructure, including the Sayed Jamaluddin Afghani University and residential neighborhoods in eastern Kunar province, the Afghan foreign ministry said.
The diplomatic protest came as Pakistani security forces reported destroying multiple Afghan Taliban positions in the Chaman sector of Balochistan province earlier in the day, in what Islamabad described as a response to unprovoked aggression along the border. The dueling claims underscored the sharp escalation in cross-border violence that has gripped the two neighbours since February, marking their worst fighting in decades.
Pakistan’s information ministry on Monday had already dismissed Afghan media reports alleging that Pakistani strikes had hit the university and residential areas in Kunar. Afghan officials rejected Islamabad’s assertions that Afghanistan had initiated the latest escalation, calling instead for an investigation into the root causes of the conflict.
The Afghan foreign ministry said it conveyed its “strong protest” over strikes on civilian areas and public infrastructure, including the university along the Durand Line, the disputed colonial-era border. It emphasised that civilians and civilian sites must be protected under international law.
Separately, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) reported Tuesday that it had documented “tens of civilians killed or injured” in strikes on Monday afternoon on areas of Asadabad in eastern Afghanistan, including a university. “Civilians and civilian sites, including educational facilities, must be protected at all times under the provisions of international law,” UNAMA said in a statement on the social media platform X. The mission extended condolences to the families of those killed and wished recovery to the injured.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned what he called the “unprovoked aggression” by Afghan Taliban forces and the Pakistani Taliban at the border. In a statement, the interior ministry quoted Naqvi as lauding the Pakistan Army for its “prompt and decisive response to the enemy.” He warned that Pakistan’s armed forces “are fully prepared to respond effectively to any aggression by enemy forces.”
The latest exchanges fit into a pattern of tit-for-tat cross-border clashes, artillery barrages, air strikes and drone attacks that have persisted since February. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harboring militants from the TTP, which it says use Afghan soil to launch attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul denies the charge.
Pakistani security told Dawn newspaper on Tuesday’s operation in Chaman, conducted under the banner of Operation Ghazab lil-Haq, targeted and destroyed the Sarshan, Al-Marjan and Edhi posts, along with associated vehicles and installations. The action followed what they described as unprovoked aggression by Afghan Taliban forces and terrorists. They said the military campaign would continue “until all the set targets are achieved” and that Pakistan’s determination to defend its homeland remained “unwavering.”
The operation was launched on the night of Feb. 26 after a series of unprovoked cross-border attacks. It was temporarily paused on March 18 at the request of several “brotherly Islamic countries” and resumed on March 26 with a pledge that it would persist until its objectives were met. On Sunday, Pakistani forces destroyed gun positions in South Waziristan used by Afghan Taliban militants who had fired on civilians, injuring three people, including two women.
Earlier this month, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said security forces had repelled an attempted assault on a border post in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Ghulam Khan sector, killing 37 attackers and injuring more than 80.Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have remained strained since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021. A fragile ceasefire took hold in March during Eid, arranged at the request of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Türkiye and in line with Islamic values, Pakistani officials said. But Islamabad has repeatedly stated it would continue strikes against militant safe havens in Afghanistan until they are eliminated.
The latest flare-up comes despite diplomatic efforts to ease tensions. From April 1 to 7, Pakistani, Chinese and Afghan officials held talks in Urumqi, China, where both sides committed to resolving their differences and agreed to avoid actions that would “escalate or complicate the situation,” according to China’s foreign ministry.
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