PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan’s airstrikes on eastern Afghanistan killed 46 people, mostly women and children, a Taliban government official said Wednesday, raising fears of further straining relations between the two neighbors.
Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesman for the Afghan government, said those killed in the strikes that targeted four locations in Barmal, a district in the province of Paktika, were refugees, adding that six others were also wounded.
This comes a day after Pakistani security officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with regulations, told The Associated Press that Tuesday’s operation was to dismantle a training facility and kill insurgents in Paktika.
Earlier Wednesday, Mohammad Khurasani, the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, claimed in a statement that 50 people, including 27 women and children, died in the strikes. He said they were “unarmed refugees” who fled to Afghanistan because of Pakistan’s offensive in the northwest.
The TTP — a separate group but also a close ally of the Afghan Taliban — also shared photos, alleging they were of children killed during the Pakistani operation.
The strikes came hours after Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan’s special representative for Afghanistan, traveled to Kabul to discuss a range of issues.
Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry in Kabul summoned the Pakistani envoy and lodged a strong protest over the strikes by Pakistan’s military. In a statement, it said while a representative of the civilian government of Pakistan was busy in talks with the Afghan officials, the strikes were carried out by Pakistani forces to “create mistrust in the relations between the two countries.”
It said Kabul “will not accept the violation of the country’s territory under any circumstances, and the country is ready to defend its independence and territory” and “such irresponsible actions will definitely have consequences.”
Pakistan has not commented on the latest strikes. However, the Pakistani military said Wednesday that security forces killed 13 insurgents in an intelligence-based operation in South Waziristan, a district located along eastern Afghanistan’s Paktika province.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi praised “Pakistan’s brave security force” in a statement for thwarting “the nefarious designs” of “terrorists.” He didn’t mention the Pakistani air strikes inside Afghanistan
The Taliban Defense Ministry denounced the attacks on Tuesday and promised retaliation.
On Wednesday, the situation along the shared border seemed to be business as usual. However, security analysts say the TTP could launch retaliatory attacks in Pakistan.
Syed Muhammad Ali, an Islamabad-based security analyst, said “heavy casualties suffered” by Pakistan due to TTP attacks prompted the military to target insurgents in Afghanistan. He said Pakistan’s ”patience has finally run out as its diplomatic efforts aimed at persuading the Afghan Taliban to rein in TTP yielded no result.”
Pakistan has seen innumerable militant attacks in the past two decades but there has been an uptick in recent months. The latest was this weekend when at least 16 Pakistani soldiers were killed when the TTP attacked a checkpoint in the country’s northwest.
Pakistani officials have accused the Taliban of not doing enough to combat militant activity across the border, a charge the Afghan Taliban government denies, saying it does not allow anyone to carry out attacks against any country.
North and South Waziristan are former strongholds of Pakistani Taliban, who have fled to Afghanistan.
Tensions were at an all-high in March when Pakistan said intelligence-based strikes took place in the border regions inside Afghanistan.
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Associated Press writers Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, contributed to this report.