By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Air Force jets carried out strikes inside Afghanistan, destroying a major ammunition depot in Nangarhar province, as security forces killed 72 Afghan Taliban militants and wounded more than 120 others in an intensified response to unprovoked cross-border attacks, officials said on Friday.
The confrontation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border escalated dramatically overnight after the Taliban regime opened fire on Pakistani positions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab-lil-haqq in response. Twelve Afghan border posts were completely destroyed and five others were captured, with Pakistani forces hoisting the national flag on them, the sources said.
“In response to unprovoked Afghan attacks, Pakistani counter strikes have been authorised and several iterations of these strikes have been conducted,” Mosharraf Zaid, the prime minister’s spokesperson for foreign media posted an update on X at 0200 hrs local time on Friday. “A total of 72 Afghan Taliban combatants have been terminated, more than 120 have been injured. Sixteen (16) Afghan Taliban posts have been destroyed and seven (7) Afghan Taliban posts have been captured.”
Zaidi said a large ammunition depot, an Afghan Taliban battalion headquarters and an Afghan Taliban sector headquarters have been destroyed. “So far, more than thirty six (36) tanks, artillery guns and armored personnel carriers have been destroyed. Further counter-attacks are going to take place in keeping with Pakistan’s resolve to be immediate and effective in response to any aggression.”
State broadcaster PTV News reported that the Pakistan Air Force conducted air strikes under the operation targeting militant infrastructure inside Nangarhar province. The forces responded decisively across multiple sectors, destroying Taliban outposts and thwarting quadcopter attacks on Pakistani check posts. All the drones were shot down in swift action, the sources said.
In the Mohmand sector’s Gursal area, troops destroyed several Taliban check posts, killing at least three insurgents. Near Chitral, the military destroyed the Taliban’s Burokot base. Targeted strikes were also carried out near the Nawapas sector, hitting multiple hideouts, the sources added. Pakistani forces conducted a precise counter-operation in Angur Adda targeting hideouts of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), known locally as khawarij. In the Bajaur sector, troops intercepted terrorists attempting to cross the border and captured one who identified himself as Abdullah, they said. Two more Taliban outposts were destroyed in Bajaur. The strong and decisive counter-operation forced the militants to flee in panic, with Taliban fighters loading goods onto trucks and retreating from the Torkham border area, security sources said.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said two Pakistani security personnel were martyred and three were injured.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said late on Thursday that the Taliban regime had “miscalculated” by opening fire across the border. “Taliban regime forces are being delivered punishment in Chitral, Khyber, Mohmand, Kurram and Bajaur sectors,” the ministry said in a post on X. Early reports confirmed heavy casualties on the Afghan side, with multiple posts and equipment destroyed, it added.“ Pakistan will take all necessary measures to ensure its territorial integrity and the safety and security of its citizens,” the ministry said.
Tarar, writing on X, said the “Afghan Taliban’s unprovoked actions along the Pak-Afghan border will continue to be responded to in an effective manner”. He added that Pakistan’s forces were “crushing the attackers’ aims”. Security sources said Pakistani forces had launched an operation named Ghazab-lil-haqq in response to the Taliban action. The forces were using light and heavy weapons and drones to target Afghan Taliban positions, the sources said. Attempts by the Afghan Taliban to attack Pakistani check posts with quadcopters failed, the sources added. All the quadcopters were shot down in swift action. Heavy firing was reported in the border areas of Mohmand’s Baizai tehsil, including Tor Khel, Gursal Gate, Anargai and the Shonkarai border region.
Tarar said false and baseless propaganda was being spread by the Afghan Taliban regime and Indian social media accounts, which had no connection to reality. “After their defeat and exposure in the field of action, the Afghan Taliban regime is resorting to lies and propaganda,” he said, adding that “Pakistan’s professional armed forces are crushing the aggressors’ intentions into dust.”
Zaidi, the prime minister’s spokesperson, said at around 11:40 p.m. that “not only have no Pakistani posts been captured or damaged, but the Pakistani side has inflicted heavy losses across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in response to unprovoked Taliban aggression”. “As of right now, there have been no Pakistani soldiers captured…. Any claims of damage to Pakistan thus far are little more than the fantasy of India’s proxies in Afghanistan… Rest assured, all aggression targeting Pakistan will get the same response: immediate and effective.”
Security sources said counter-attacks had destroyed Taliban hideouts, forcing the khawarij – the term used by Pakistani authorities for militants of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan – to flee. Pakistani forces destroyed an Afghan Taliban check post opposite the Chitral sector and responded with full force in the Nawagai sector of Bajaur, the Tirah area of Khyber, Mohmand district and the Arandu sector in Chitral. Two more Afghan posts were destroyed across the border from Bajaur, the sources said.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said on X that the Afghan Taliban had carried out “provocative actions” along the border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “The enemy’s advances in Chitral, Mohmand, Kurram and Bajaur sectors were thwarted and heavy losses were inflicted on them,” he said. Initial reports indicated multiple checkposts and military equipment of the Afghan side had been destroyed. “Pakistan will not compromise on its territorial integrity, sovereignty and protection of its people. Any kind of aggression will be responded to effectively, immediately and with full force,” Chaudhry said.
Cross-border firing began around 6 p.m. local time (1300 GMT) on Thursday and continued into the night, prompting residents to take refuge in safer locations. The Afghan Taliban had launched similar but unsuccessful attacks on the same areas – Wragha Sar, Maro Sar and Shahkot Sar – on Tuesday. Border security forces at the Torkham crossing were placed on high alert. The crossing has remained closed since Oct. 12 last year amid ongoing tensions between the two countries.
The latest clashes occurred less than a week after Pakistani airstrikes targeted seven terrorist camps and hideouts in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar and Paktika provinces, killing more than 100 militants. Tariq Fazal Chaudhry told the Senate at the time that initial figures of more than 80 killed had been revised upward. The information ministry said those strikes were carried out in response to a series of terrorist attacks inside Pakistan, including a suicide bombing at an Imambargah in Islamabad and attacks in Bannu and Bajaur during the holy month of Ramadan. “Pakistan has conclusive evidence that these acts of terrorism were perpetrated by khawarij at the behest of their Afghanistan-based leadership and handlers,” the ministry said then.
Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry told a private news channel that Pakistan was taking all necessary measures to respond to the latest unprovoked actions. “No one will be allowed to take away Pakistan’s peace,” he said. “Pakistan will go to any extent for the safety and peace of its people,” he added, stressing that Afghanistan must, under all circumstances, become a peaceful neighbour.
Pakistan was a major backer of the Taliban after its ouster in 2001 following a US-led invasion. Relations deteriorated after Islamabad accused the group of providing a safe haven to the Pakistan Taliban, which has launched an armed insurgency against government forces. The group has carried out at least 600 attacks on Pakistani forces over the past year, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. Pakistan and Afghanistan share a 1,600-mile (2,574 km) mountainous border.
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