Pakistan strikes militant hideouts on Afghan border after surge in attacks

Pakistan carried out strikes along the border with Afghanistan on Saturday night, stating it was targeting hideouts of Pakistani militants it blames for recent attacks inside the country.Islamabad did not say in precisely which areas the strikes were carried out or provide other details. There was no immediate comment from Kabul, and reports on social media suggested the strikes were carried out inside Afghanistan.Pakistan’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, wrote on X that the military conducted “intelligence-based, selective operations” against seven camps belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and its affiliates. He said an affiliate of Islamic State was also targeted in the border region.In October, Pakistan also conducted strikes deep inside Afghanistan to target militant hideouts.Tarar said Pakistan “has always strived to maintain peace and stability in the region”, but added that the safety and security of Pakistani citizens remained a top priority.The latest development came days after a suicide bomber, backed by gunmen, rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the wall of a security post in Bajaur district in north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. The blast caused part of the compound to collapse, killing 11 soldiers and a child, and authorities later said the attacker was an Afghan national.Hours before the latest border strikes, another suicide bomber targeted a security convoy in the nearby Bannu district in the north-west, killing two soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel.After Saturday’s violence, Pakistan’s military warned it would not “exercise any restraint” and operations against those responsible would continue “irrespective of their location”, language that suggested rising tensions between Islamabad and Kabul.Tarar said Pakistan had “conclusive evidence” that the recent attacks, including a suicide bombing that targeted a Shiite mosque in Islamabad and killed 31 worshippers earlier this month, were carried out by militants acting at the “behest of their Afghanistan-based leadership and handlers”.He said Pakistan had repeatedly urged Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to take verifiable steps to prevent militant groups from using Afghan territory to launch attacks in Pakistan, but alleged that no substantive action had been taken.He said Pakistan urged the international community to press Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities to uphold their commitments under the Doha agreement not to allow their soil to be used against other countries.Pakistan has seen a rise in militant violence in recent years, much of it blamed on the TTP and outlawed Baloch separatist groups. The TTP is separate from but closely allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban, who returned to power in 2021. Islamabad accuses the TTP of operating from inside Afghanistan, a charge the group and Kabul deny.Relations between the neighbouring countries have remained tense since October, when deadly border clashes killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. The violence followed explosions in Kabul that Afghan officials blamed on Pakistan.A Qatar-mediated ceasefire has largely held, but talks in Istanbul failed to produce a formal agreement, and relations remain strained.