Islamabad (AP) — Pakistan is keen to stop protecting Afghan hard-line religious rulers from their own Pakistani Taliban militants, who have launched increasingly deadly attacks on the country’s troops on Sunday. Issued a warning.
The warning followed Afghanistan’s report that Pakistani aircraft bombed Khost and Kunar in eastern Afghanistan late Friday, killing civilians.
Pakistan has so far refused to comment on Afghanistan’s allegations and instead accuses the Afghan Taliban of doing nothing to prevent Afghan militants from attacking Pakistan. ..
“Terrorists are using exempted Afghan soil to operate in Pakistan,” said a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was unusually harsh in the words.
Pakistan was often accused of containing Afghan Taliban fighters as they ended a 20-year war before they came to power last August. Since their takeover, Islamabad has paved the way for the world to engage with the religiously promoted Afghan government.
However, it is not clear whether Pakistan’s new prime minister, Shabaz Sharif, will support the Afghan Taliban as well as his predecessor Imran Khan, who was expelled in a politically confused distrust resolution last weekend.
On Saturday, the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry called on Pakistan’s ambassador to complain about the civilians killed in the bombing, which allegedly killed refugees in the states of Kunar and Khost in eastern Afghanistan.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid warned Pakistan, “Don’t test the patience of Afghanistan on such issues or make the same mistakes, otherwise it will have bad consequences.” He did not elaborate on the consequences or the number of people killed.
TOLO News, Afghanistan’s largest news channel, showed images of children’s bodies that were said to have been killed in airstrikes. The same channel has shown protests by hundreds of residents of eastern Khost, blaming Pakistan and shouting anti-Pakistan slogans.
Pakistan has not confirmed an attack on Afghanistan, and a statement on Sunday called the Taliban rulers by saying that it was too little to prevent Pakistani Taliban militants from using their territory to attack Pakistan. I’m blaming you.
“In the last few days, there has been a significant increase in incidents along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, where Pakistani security forces have been targeted across borders,” a Pakistani statement said. Last week, seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in an ambush near the border where the Pakistani Taliban, later known as the Pakistani Taliban (TTP).
Armed attacks in Pakistan have accelerated since the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan. The attacks were alleged by either the Taliban in Pakistan or a group member of the Islamic State, also headquartered in Afghanistan, but the Taliban have fought against them.
By late March of this year, Pakistan had seen 52 attacks by militants.According to Amir Lana, Managing Director of the Pakistan Peace Institute, an independent think tank that oversees Pakistani militant activity, compared to 35 at the same time last year. The attack has also become fatal. So far this year in Pakistan, 155 people have been killed in such attacks, compared to 68 last year.
The border between the two countries, known as the Durand Line, runs 2,670 kilometers (1,660 miles) of dividing lines. The Durand Line runs through the Pashtun population of the region, often dividing tribes and families into two countries. Successive Afghan rulers, founded by the British in the 19th century, claimed Pakistan’s territory, known as the Pashtun-controlled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and refused to recognize it as an official border.
Since taking power, the Afghan Taliban have clashed with Pakistan several times over the border barriers that Islamabad is building.
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Islamabad’s Associated Press author Tameem Akhgar contributed to this report.