(AP photo)
New Delhi: India on Sunday strongly condemned Pakistan’s overnight air strikes on neighboring Afghanistan during the holy month of Ramadan. The strikes reportedly targeted alleged terrorist hideouts that Islamabad blamed for recent suicide bombings in Pakistan.
In an official statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs highlighted the women and children victims of the attack. In response to media queries on Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan, Spokesperson, Shri Randhir Jaiswal said: India strongly condemns Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan territory which resulted in civilian casualties, including women and children, during the holy month of Ramadan.
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Pakistan strikes Afghanistan; Large numbers of civilian casualties have been reported in night air attacks He watches
Meanwhile, Kabul has repeatedly denied allegations that armed groups are using Afghan territory to launch attacks against Pakistan.The Afghan Ministry of Defense said on Sunday that “dozens of innocent civilians, including women and children, were martyred and injured” after air strikes targeted a school and residential homes in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Paktika.Pakistan said it killed 70 terrorists in military strikes targeting at least seven militant hideouts inside Afghanistan, describing the measure as retaliation for recent insurgent attacks in the country.
Pakistani Minister of State for Interior Affairs, Talal Chaudhry, while speaking to Geo News, said: “Afghanistan has been exporting terrorism for a long time. Pakistan is taking all measures to secure the lives and property of its citizens.”Earlier, the Pakistani Ministry of Information and Broadcasting confirmed that the strikes were carried out in response to the recent suicide bombings in Islamabad, Bajaur and Bannu. But Kabul warned that it would provide a “necessary and thoughtful response” to the attacks.In the latest incident, an army lieutenant colonel and a soldier were killed in a suicide bombing in Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Saturday.According to a statement issued by the Pakistan Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the government has conclusive evidence that the recent terrorist attacks, including the attack on a Shiite mosque in Islamabad, as well as the attacks in Bajaur and Bannu, which were followed by another incident in Bannu on Saturday, were carried out by Kharijite militants acting on the directions of their leadership and officials stationed in Afghanistan.The ministry said that the Afghanistan-based Pakistani Taliban, which belongs to the Fitnat al-Kharijites (FAK) and its affiliated groups, as well as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP), claimed responsibility for the attacks.Sedition of the Kharijites is a term used by the Pakistani state to refer to the outlawed Pakistani Taliban movement.
