‘Cowardly act of aggression’: Taliban govt says Pakistani airstrikes killed and wounded dozens in eastern Afghanistan

KABUL: Defending its territory and people, the Taliban administration has exposed the severe violence inflicted by Pakistan, asserting that Islamabad deployed its air force to carry out targeted airstrikes within eastern Afghanistan, causing significant devastation and resulting in dozens of civilian casualties.

According to Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, the aerial bombardment directly hit the eastern provinces of Paktika, Paktia, and Kunar. In a public statement issued on the social media platform X, Mujahid strongly censured the unprovoked military operation conducted by Islamabad.

Condemning the high-altitude assault on residential areas, Mujahid described the state-sponsored military action as a “cowardly act of aggression”.

Casualty Figures Reported Thus Far from Last Night’s Bombings by the Pakistani Military Regime in Paktia, Paktika, and Kunar Provinces

29 June 2026

In Mandokhail Village, within Chamkani District of Paktia Province, Pakistani fighter jets bombed a civilian residence. As a… pic.twitter.com/QJHZqwMRwn

— Hamdullah Fitratحمدالله فطرت (@FitratHamd) June 29, 2026

Details emerging from the region indicate that Pakistan carried out these strikes along its border with Afghanistan on Sunday, resulting in the killing of 29 individuals, Dawn reported.

Seeking to justify the cross-border assault, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar stated on Sunday night that Islamabad’s security forces had executed a “well planned intelligence based ground operation” alongside aerial strikes in the frontier zone.

The conversion of this border campaign into kinetic action was a retaliatory measure, the minister claimed, following multiple recent terrorist incidents inside Pakistan. He specifically cited attacks targeting security camps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and a paramilitary camp in Karachi.

The regional friction had sharply intensified after a Saturday night assault on the provincial headquarters of the Pakistan Sindh Rangers in Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar locality. The Sindh police chief told Dawn that three Pakistani paramilitary personnel and three attackers were killed after militants rammed the main gate with a vehicle, triggering heavy gunfire and explosions.

An affiliate of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the Karachi garrison breach, Al Jazeera reported. However, rather than containing the local threat, Islamabad chose to project its military power externally into Afghanistan, hitting civilian pockets instead.

This latest unilateral move by Pakistan is projected to severely aggravate the deep-seated tensions persisting between Islamabad and Kabul. The offensive was executed less than three weeks after Pakistan’s military launched strikes targeting what it described as militant hideouts inside Afghan territory.

The deadly bombardment effectively shattered a fragile one-month period of relative stability, which had followed what Islamabad had previously characterised as an “open war” between the neighbouring nations, completely bypassing ongoing global efforts aimed at establishing a durable peace.

The current escalation marks the culmination of months of back-and-forth military engagements. Since February, border skirmishes have claimed hundreds of lives, a violent cycle that originally intensified after Afghanistan was forced to execute retaliatory strikes in response to those earlier air raids.

Multiple phases of internationally mediated peace negotiations have repeatedly failed to secure a sustainable ceasefire due to recurring hostilities.

Although China stepped in to host diplomatic talks between the two nations in April, subsequently announcing that Islamabad and Kabul had committed to curbing further military hostilities and exploring a peaceful resolution, Pakistan’s latest assault has thoroughly shattered those bilateral understandings. (ANI)