Pakistan carried out raids along the border with Afghanistan on Saturday night, saying it targeted hideouts of Pakistani militants responsible for recent attacks in the country.
Islamabad did not disclose the areas in which the raids were conducted or other details. There was no immediate comment from Kabul, and reports on social media suggested the attacks took place inside Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar wrote in X that the army conducted “intelligence-based, selective operations” against seven camps of the Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and its affiliates. An Islamic State affiliate in the border area was also targeted, he said.
In October, Pakistan also launched strikes deep inside Afghanistan to target militant bases.
Tarar said Pakistan “always strives to maintain peace and stability in the region”, but added that the safety and security of Pakistani citizens is of the highest priority.
The latest development comes days after a suicide bomber backed by gunmen rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the wall of a security post in the Bajaur district of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, bordering Afghanistan. The blast collapsed part of the compound, killing 11 soldiers and a child, and officials said the attacker was an Afghan national.
Hours before the latest cross-border attacks, another suicide bomber targeted a security convoy in nearby Bannu district in the northwest, killing two soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel.
After Saturday’s violence, Pakistan’s military warned it would show “no restraint” and operations against those responsible would continue “irrespective of their location”, language that hinted at rising tensions between Islamabad and Kabul.
Tarar said Pakistan had “conclusive evidence” that militants had carried out “at the behest of their Afghanistan-based leadership and handlers” in recent attacks, including a suicide bomb targeting a Shia mosque in Islamabad that killed 31 worshipers earlier this month.
He alleged that Pakistan has repeatedly asked Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to take verifiable steps to prevent militant groups from using Afghan territory to launch attacks in Pakistan, but no significant steps have been taken.
He said that Pakistan has asked the international community to pressurize the Afghan Taliban authorities to uphold their commitments under the Doha agreement of not allowing their soil to be used against other countries.
Pakistan has seen a spate of extremist violence in recent years, mostly from banned TTP and Baloch separatist groups. The TTP is separate but close to Afghanistan’s Taliban, which returned to power in 2021. Islamabad has accused the TTP of operating from inside Afghanistan, which the group and Kabul have denied.
Relations between the neighboring countries have been tense since October, when border clashes killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected terrorists. Violence erupted after the explosions in Kabul, which Afghan officials blamed on Pakistan.
A ceasefire was largely brokered by Qatar, but talks in Istanbul failed to produce a formal agreement and relations were strained.
