Pakistan’s government confirmed on Monday that it had carried out an “intelligence-based counterterrorism operation” inside Afghanistan, infuriating the Taliban, who say they responded by bombing Pakistani military bases with “heavy weapons.”
Relations between Pakistan and Taliban-controlled Afghanistan have been strained since terrorists overran Kabul in August 2021, ending the already 20-year-old Afghan war set for May 2021. This is a direct result of left-wing US President Joe Biden’s decision to extend it beyond the deadline. by his predecessor, former President Donald Trump. A report released in February 2023 found that Biden left behind an estimated $7.2 billion worth of military equipment in Afghanistan, now under the control of Taliban terrorists and their allies. It is believed that.
Taliban take to the streets on August 15, 2022, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on a national holiday celebrating the first anniversary of the Taliban occupation. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
Islamabad blames the Biden administration’s clumsy extension of the war and the subsequent abrupt withdrawal of U.S. troops for the “recent resurgence of terrorism” on Pakistan’s border. Evidence shows that the weapons Biden abandoned in Afghanistan ended up in the hands of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or the Pakistani Taliban, an organization separate from the Afghan Taliban (the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”). However, it has formed an alliance with a terrorist organization based in Kabul.
Pakistan has stepped up military operations against the TTP and other jihadist elements on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and launched a major operation to deport nearly 2 million Afghans living in the country illegally. On Monday, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the carrying out of an airstrike on mainland Afghanistan that allegedly targeted the Hafiq Gul Bahadur group, which claims to be affiliated with the TTP.
The Foreign Ministry statement angrily accused the Taliban of allowing a threat to Pakistan’s national security to persist in territory it claims to control.Pakistani officials claimed They claimed to have successfully neutralized a TTP terrorist named Abdullah Shah, but a man calling himself Shah released a video shortly after the attack declaring that he was alive and active in jihad.
Mohammad Adnan Junudi (2nd from right), 38, a high-ranking Taliban military official in charge of reception at the Torkham border crossing in eastern Afghanistan, collects the belongings of returnees who have been deported or forced to leave Pakistan. He is helping to load the items onto a military truck. November 9, 2023. (Elise Blanchard, The Washington Post, via Getty Images)
“Pakistan has repeatedly conveyed its serious concerns to the Afghan interim government.” [the Taliban] According to Pakistani newspapers, regarding the presence of terrorist organizations, including the TTP, in Afghanistan, a statement from the secretariat said: dawn. “These terrorists pose a serious threat to Pakistan’s security and have consistently used Afghan territory to carry out terrorist attacks within Pakistani territory.”
“Pakistan has great respect for the people of Afghanistan. However, some in power in Afghanistan are actively patronizing the TTP and using it as a proxy against Pakistan,” the foreign ministry statement continued. Ta. “Such an approach to a brotherly country that has always worked with the Afghan people shows short-sightedness. It ignores the support that Pakistan has given to the Afghan people over the past few decades.”
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s top spokesperson, said: Confirmed In a statement released on his Twitter account on Monday, he said that Pakistani forces had invaded Afghan territory. Mujahid said that Pakistan “bombed civilian homes, resulting in six martyrs in Paktika, including three women and three children, and their homes were destroyed, and two women were martyred in Khost Province when their houses collapsed.” “I did,” he claimed. ”
Armed Taliban security personnel pose for a photo near the closed gate of the Torkham border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan in eastern Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province on September 6, 2023. (Shafiullah Kakar/AFP via Getty Images)
President Mujahid’s statement further threatened an attack on Pakistan.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly condemns these attacks and calls this reckless action a violation of Afghanistan’s territory,” the spokesperson declared. “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which has a long experience in freedom struggles against the world’s superpowers, will not allow anyone to invade its territory.”
“Pakistan should not blame Afghanistan for lack of control, incompetence and problems in its territory. Such incidents can have very negative consequences that are beyond Pakistan’s control,” Mujahid added. Ta.
Mujahid also claimed that Abdullah Shah, the terrorist targeted by Pakistan in the operation, “is in Pakistan”.
Late Monday, the Taliban’s “Ministry of Defense” claimed it had bombed Pakistani military targets inside Pakistan.
“In response to that incursion, Afghan Islamic Emirate border forces targeted Pakistani military bases across the artificial Durand Line with heavy weapons,” a Taliban official said. announced. At the time of writing, reports did not provide details on the extent of damage caused by the Taliban attack.
Afghan broadcaster Toro News report “According to sources, military clashes between Islamic Emirate and Pakistani soldiers began at 7 o’clock this morning (Monday) and are still ongoing,” it said on Monday.
Afghan refugees settle in a camp near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Torkham, Afghanistan, Friday, November 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Norouzi)
Pakistan’s military recently entered Afghanistan as a group to fight terrorism. In April 2022, Taliban leaders accused Islamabad after sending helicopters to Afghanistan’s Ghost and Kunar provinces to attack alleged TTP targets.
“Unfortunately, some of the banned terrorist organizations in the border areas, including the TTP, continued to attack Pakistan’s border posts, resulting in the martyrdom of several Pakistan Army soldiers,” Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Ta. Said at that time.
The conflict between Kabul and Islamabad escalated in 2023 as Pakistani authorities complained that terrorists appeared to be using advanced US weaponry to engage in jihad.
“Reasons for the recent resurgence of terrorism witnessed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan” [Pakistan-Afghanistan border provinces] Unfortunately, this is the result of a hasty military withdrawal by the United States and its NATO allies,” then-caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar directly criticized in September. “The hasty withdrawal affected not only Pakistan, but also Central Asia, China, Iran and the entire region.”
He added that the abandoned equipment had “significantly strengthened the combat capabilities of terrorists and non-state actors in the region.” Previously their abilities were minimal, but now soldiers can attack even with the movement of a finger. ”
In October, Pakistan announced the illegal mass deportation of 1.73 million Afghans in the country, a move angrily denounced as “unacceptable”.
“There is no consensus that we are being attacked from within Afghanistan and that Afghans are behind the attack on us,” Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti declared. “We have evidence that Afghans were involved in these attacks and are taking up the matter with Afghan Taliban authorities through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
