Kabul warns of response at ‘proper time’ after alleged Pakistan airstrikes

• Taliban government calls alleged Pakistan airstrikes a ‘direct assault’ on Afghan sovereignty 
• Afghanistan-Pakistan tensions have intensified since deadly border clashes in October this year

KABUL: Afghanistan said it would take a “necessary response at the proper time” after alleged overnight Pakistani airstrikes in three eastern provinces killed nine children and a woman, a Taliban government spokesman said on Tuesday.

Pakistani forces “bombed the house of a local civilian” in the Khost province late on Monday, the Afghan Taliban government’s chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on X in a series of posts that included photos of the child victims.

The airstrikes also targeted the border provinces of Kunar and Paktika, injuring at least another four civilians, he added.

“The airstrikes carried out last night by Pakistani forces in Afghanistan’s Paktika, Khost, and Kunar provinces constitute a direct assault on Afghanistan’s sovereignty and expose the ongoing failures of Pakistan’s military regime,” Mujahid said.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly condemns this violation and act of aggression, and stresses that defending its airspace, territory, and citizens is its legitimate right. A necessary response will be taken at the proper time.”

Pakistan authorities have yet to comment on the alleged strikes, which came after suicide bombers targeted the headquarters of a Pakistan paramilitary force in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Monday, killing three officers and wounding at least 11 others.

Relations between the neighboring countries have been strained since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, following the withdrawal of US-led troops. But tensions have intensified since October this year, following deadly border clashes that killed about 70 people on both sides.

Though the fighting ended with a ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkiye, talks held in Istanbul failed to produce a lasting deal.

Pakistan accuses the Afghan Taliban of sheltering fighters from the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and allowing them to stage cross-border attacks — a charge Afghanistan denies, saying it does not allow its territory to be used against other countries.

Pakistan’s recent airstrikes marked a “dangerous escalation,” said Ahmad Samadi, a political science lecturer at Salam University in Kabul.

“Targeting areas where families live not only violates basic humanitarian norms, but it also deepens mistrust between two countries that share history, culture, and long-standing social ties,” he told Arab News.

“These incidents fuel anger on the Afghan side and complicate any effort to build constructive diplomatic engagement. If such actions continue, they risk pushing governments on both sides further away from dialogue and closer to prolonged tensions.”

Afghans who live along the Durand Line — the 2,640-km border between Afghanistan and Pakistan — are calling for an end to the strikes.

“We just want this to end. We want to live without fear of the next bombardment,” Abdul Hakim, a 36-year-old shopkeeper from Khost, told Arab News.

“We have families on both sides of the Durand Line, and we should be living as good neighbors. Instead, Pakistan keeps striking our houses and taking the lives of our women and children. It’s wrong, completely wrong, and we ask our own government to put a stop to this.”

For most of his life, 28-year-old Sharikullah said he has witnessed how Pakistan’s attacks “have fallen on ordinary homes” of “families who have done nothing” to Islamabad.

“This isn’t the first time something like this has happened … but lately the strikes have become more frequent … We want nothing but peaceful, respectful relations with Pakistan as our neighbor, but many of us feel that their military actions only bring more insecurity and hardship to our lives,” he said.

“Our people are exhausted. We just want the killing of civilians to stop. We don’t expect anything more than Pakistan.”