Pakistan’s navy has carried out air strikes in Afghanistan, focusing on what it known as “camps and hideouts” belonging to armed teams behind a spate of latest assaults, together with a suicide bombing that killed dozens of worshippers at a Shia mosque in Islamabad.
There was no speedy remark from Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities, however Afghan sources informed Al Jazeera the strikes on Sunday hit two border provinces.
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The sources mentioned a drone strike hit a non secular college within the Paktika province, and that assaults additionally occurred in Nangarhar province.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Info and Broadcasting, in an announcement on X, mentioned the nation’s navy performed “intelligence-based, selective operations” towards seven camps and hideouts belonging to the Pakistan Taliban, often known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and its associates.
An affiliate of the Islamic State group was additionally focused within the border area, it mentioned.
The ministry mentioned it had “conclusive proof” that latest assaults in Islamabad, in addition to within the northwestern Bajaur and Bannu districts, have been perpetrated by fighters “on behest of their Afghanistan-based management and handlers”.
It mentioned Pakistan has repeatedly urged the Taliban authorities to take motion to stop armed teams from utilizing Afghan territory to launch assaults, however that Kabul has did not “undertake any substantive motion”.
Pakistan “has at all times strived to take care of peace and stability within the area”, it added, however mentioned the protection and safety of Pakistani residents remained its high precedence.
The Pakistani air strikes on Afghanistan got here hours after a suicide bomber focused a safety convoy within the Bannu district of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing two soldiers, together with a lieutenant colonel.
On Monday, a suicide bomber, backed by gunmen, rammed an explosives-laden car into the wall of a safety submit within the close by Bajaur, killing 11 soldiers and a child. Authorities later mentioned the attacker was an Afghan nationwide.
On February 6, one other suicide bomber detonated his explosives throughout midday prayers on the Khadija Tul Kubra mosque in Islamabad’s Tarlai Kalan space, killing at the least 31 worshippers and wounding 170 others.
The Islamic State group claimed accountability for the assault.
Whereas bombings are uncommon within the closely guarded capital, the assault on Khadija Tul Kubra was the second such attack in three months, elevating fears of a return to violence in Pakistan’s main city centres.
On the time, the Pakistani navy mentioned the “planning, coaching, and indoctrination for the assault occurred in Afghanistan”.
In its assertion on Sunday, the Pakistani Info Ministry reiterated a name on the worldwide neighborhood to press the Taliban to uphold its commitments beneath the settlement it signed with america, within the Qatari capital, Doha, in 2020, to stop the usage of Afghan territory for assaults towards different international locations.
The ministry mentioned the transfer was “important for regional and international peace and safety”.
Pakistan has seen a surge in violence lately, a lot of it blamed on the TTP and outlawed Baloch separatist teams. Islamabad accuses the TTP of working from inside Afghanistan, a cost the group denies.
The Taliban authorities has additionally constantly denied sheltering anti-Pakistan armed teams.
Relations between the neighbouring international locations have remained tense since October, when lethal border clashes killed dozens of troopers, civilians and suspected fighters.
The violence adopted explosions in Kabul, which Afghan officers blamed on Pakistan.
A ceasefire mediated by Qatar on October 19 has largely held, however subsequent talks in Turkiye’s Istanbul failed to supply a proper settlement.
