Kabul: In response to the Pakistani military's air strikes on the Afghanistan border, the Taliban claimed it has also carried out similar attacks on "Pakistani military centres with heavy weapons". It was not clear whether anyone was killed in what the extremist group called a "retaliatory" move against Pakistani forces which had killed at least eight people including children in the Barmal district of Paktika and the Spera district of Khost.
"Have responded to attacks and targeted Pakistani military centres with heavy weapons," Tolo News quoted Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson for the Taliban-led government on Monday. Condemning the attack on Afghanistani soil, the extremist organisation warned Islamabad to prepare for the worst repercussions. "Any violation of Afghanistan's sovereignty would have bad consequences," he said.
"Bad consequences"
Mujahid said that such attacks would have bad consequences that Pakistan would not be able to handle. "Pakistan shouldn't blame Afghanistan for the lack of control, incompetence, and problems in its own territory," Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said in the statement.
Notably, Pakistan and Afghanistan share an international border, called the Durand Line. The border stretches for about 2,600 km between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It culminates at its western end at the border with Iran and at its eastern end at the border with China.
The relations between the two South Asian nations have increasingly frayed in recent years, with Pakistan accusing the extremist government of failing to root out militants staging attacks in Pakistan from their soil.
Pakistan admits its forces carry out airstrikes on Afghanistan
Later, Pakistan Foreign Office on Monday confirmed that Pakistan carried out “intelligence-based anti-terrorist operations” inside the border regions of Afghanistan, hours after Kabul said airstrikes conducted on its soil had killed eight people, Dawn reported.
A press release from the FO said the prime targets of the operation conducted in the morning earlier today were terrorists belonging to the Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group, adding that the outfit, along with the banned militant Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), was responsible for multiple terrorist attacks inside Pakistan, resulting in “deaths of hundreds of civilians and law enforcement officials”.
The FO added that the latest attack of such an instance took place on Saturday at a security post in Mir Ali in North Waziristan which claimed the lives of seven Pakistani soldiers, added the report.
The statement added that over the years, “Pakistan has repeatedly conveyed its serious concerns to the interim Afghan government over the presence of terror outfits, including TTP, inside Afghanistan. These terrorists pose a grave threat to Pakistan’s security and have consistently used Afghan territory to launch terror attacks inside Pakistani territory.”
Taliban denies claims of TTP presence in Afghanistan
Responding to allegations levelled by the Pakistani military claiming the Taliban of giving a free hand to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants in the country, the latter denied the claims. The Taliban said that Afghan soil is not allowed to be used against other countries, including Pakistan.
"We reject the presence of any ... foreign groups in Afghanistan and they are not allowed to operate on Afghan soil. In this regard, we have made our utmost effort and continue to do so; but one thing we must accept is that Afghanistan shares a very long border area with Pakistan, and there are places with rugged terrain including mountains and forests, and places that might be out of our control," said Zabihullah Mujahid.
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