প্রকাশ: 18/04/2022
The death toll from Pakistani military air strikes in the
eastern Afghanistan provinces of Khost and Kunar has jumped to at least 47,
officials said Sunday, as Islamabad urged Kabul to act against militants
launching attacks from Afghan soil.
Border tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have risen
since the Taliban seized power last year, with Islamabad claiming militant
groups are carrying out regular attacks from Afghan soil.
The Taliban deny harbouring Pakistani militants, but are
also infuriated by a fence Islamabad is erecting along their 2,700-kilometre
(1,600-mile) border.
Tension between the two neighbours further deepened after
Saturday's pre-dawn air assault which Afghan officials now claim was carried
out by Pakistani military helicopters.
The air strikes hit residential houses in Khost and Kunar
along the border, Afghan officials said. Earlier officials had said Pakistani
forces had fired rockets.
"Forty-one civilians, mainly women and children, were
killed and 22 others were wounded in air strikes by Pakistani forces near the
Durand line in Khost province," Shabir Ahmad Osmani, director of
information and culture in Khost told AFP.
Najibullah, an official with the Ministry for Promotion of
Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Khost said the death toll in the province was
48.
"Twenty-four people were killed from one family
itself," he told AFP.
Jamshid, a tribal leader from Khost, also confirmed that the
death toll was more than 40.
"I went yesterday with several people to donate blood for
treating the wounded in Khost strike," Jamshid said.
On Saturday, officials had said five children and a woman
had been killed in similar strikes in Kunar.
TOLO News, Afghanistan's leading private TV channel,
continued to show gruesome footage of scattered blood and debris of damaged
houses in the assault in Khost.
The Pakistani military has so far not offered any comment on
the strikes, but on Sunday the foreign ministry in Islamabad urged the Taliban
authorities in Kabul to rein in the militants.
"Pakistan requests the sovereign Government of
Afghanistan to secure Pak-Afghan Border region and take stern actions against
the individuals involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan," Pakistan's
foreign ministry said.
It said seven Pakistan soldiers were killed in North
Waziristan district on Thursday by "terrorists operating from
Afghanistan".
Areas along the border have long been a stronghold for
militant groups such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which operates
across the porous frontier with Afghanistan.
"Unfortunately, elements of banned terrorist groups in
the border region, including TTP, have continued to attack Pakistan's border
security posts, resulting in the martyrdom of several Pakistani troops,"
the foreign ministry said.
The Afghan Taliban and the TTP are separate groups in both
countries, but share a common ideology and draw from people who live on either
side of the border.
Thousands of people usually cross the border daily,
including traders, Afghans seeking medical treatment in Pakistan, and people
visiting relatives.
Last month the TTP announced it would launch an offensive
against Pakistani security forces from the first day of the Muslim holy month
of Ramadan.
The TTP are pressuring the Pakistani authorities to allow
militants to return to their hometowns with impunity after foreign fighters
were told by the Afghan Taliban to leave Afghanistan.
Afghanistan's Taliban government meanwhile issued a warning
to Pakistan after Saturday's assault.
"This is a cruelty and it is paving the way for enmity
between Afghanistan and Pakistan," Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah
Mujahid said late on Saturday.
"The Pakistani side should know that if a war starts it
will not be in the interest of any side."
The air strikes meanwhile triggered protests in Khost and
some other provinces over the weekend. - AFP
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