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Pakistan launched strikes on major cities in Afghanistan on Friday, including the capital Kabul, as its defence minister said his country ran out of “patience” and considers that there is now an “open war”.
It comes after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops on Thursday night in retaliation for deadly Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas Sunday.
In a post on X Friday, Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif said Pakistan had hoped for peace in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of NATO forces and expected the Taliban to focus on the welfare of the Afghan people and regional stability. Instead, he alleged, the Taliban had turned Afghanistan “into a colony of India,” gathered militants from around the world and begun “exporting terrorism.”
Pakistan has frequently accused neighboring India of backing the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army and the Pakistani Taliban, allegations New Delhi denies.
Relations between the neighbours have plunged in recent months, with land border crossings largely shut since deadly fighting in October that killed more than 70 people on both sides.
Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to act against militant groups that carry out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban government denies.
Several rounds of negotiations followed an initial ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey, but the efforts have failed to produce a lasting agreement.
Both militaries said they killed dozens of soldiers in the latest round of border violence, which followed multiple Pakistani strikes on Afghanistan and clashes along the frontier in recent months.
Months of border violence
There has been a series of deadly suicide blasts in Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent months.
They included an attack on a Shiite mosque in Islamabad that killed at least 40 people and was claimed by the Islamic State group.
The militant group’s regional chapter, Islamic State-Khorasan, also claimed a deadly suicide bombing at a restaurant in Kabul last month.
After repeated breaches of the initial ceasefire, Saudi Arabia intervened this month, mediating the release of three Pakistani soldiers captured by Afghanistan in October.
Pakistan launched a sweeping crackdown in October 2023 to expel migrants without documents, urging those in the country to leave of their own accord to avoid arrest and forcible deportation and forcibly expelling others. Iran also began a crackdown on migrants at around the same time.
Since then, millions have streamed across the border into Afghanistan, including people who were born in Pakistan decades ago and had built lives and created businesses there.
Last year alone, 2.9 million people returned to Afghanistan, the UN refugee agency has said, with nearly 80,000 having returned so far this year.
Additional sources • AP, AFP