Pakistan announced that its security forces carried out a ground operation along the border with Afghanistan that killed dozens, following a deadly attack on Pakistani security forces in the city of Karachi.
The Associated Press quoted Pakistani military officials as saying that security forces carried out an intelligence-based ground operation along the Pakistani-Afghan border, followed by carefully calculated strikes targeting militant hideouts and safe havens in the border area, killing dozens of militants.
Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Trar said that security forces carried out a ground operation based on intelligence followed by airstrikes targeting what he described as "terrorist hideouts" on the Afghan side of the border, stressing that the operation came in response to the attack that killed three security personnel in Karachi over the weekend.
Trar explained that the strikes targeted the hideouts of the groups "Jamaat-e-Ahrar" and "Fitna al-Khariji", which is the term used by Pakistani authorities to refer to the Pakistani Taliban.
Afghanistan denies using its territory to launch attacks against Pakistan
Afghan authorities have again denied using their territory to launch attacks against Pakistan, saying Pakistani airstrikes in three eastern provinces have killed and wounded dozens of civilians.
Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid described the attacks as a "cowardly act of aggression", condemning the military escalation and calling on Pakistan to respect Afghanistan's sovereignty.
The escalation comes just a day after gunmen armed with firearms and explosives attacked the Rangers' paramilitary regional headquarters in the port city of Karachi, killing three soldiers. Pakistani forces announced that three of the attackers were killed and a fourth wounded was arrested, noting that he is an Afghan national.
Jamaat-e-Ahrar, a splinter group from the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement attributed to it.
Pakistan's information minister stressed that his country "always seeks to maintain peace and stability in the region," but at the same time stressed that the protection and security of citizens is "an uncompromising priority."
The Karachi Spark and the Sudden Military Response
According to Pakistani sources, the blitzkrieg military operations came as a direct response to an attack against the regional headquarters of the Rangers' paramilitary forces in the port city of Karachi, which killed three security personnel, prompting Islamabad to mobilize its fighter jets and ground forces to launch precise operations targeting three provinces in eastern Afghanistan, namely Paktia, Paktika and Kunar, killing and wounding dozens of people amid conflicting reports about their identities.
Field data indicate that Pakistani forces relied on extensive intelligence to strike what they described as "terror dens", confirming the arrest of one of the attackers in Karachi who holds Afghan nationality, which Islamabad considered evidence of the existence of cross-border plans that target their security depth and require a deterrent and direct response without waiting for diplomatic settlements.
Clash of Novels
Pakistani authorities cling to the narrative that their strikes did not target the Afghan state or the Taliban's infrastructure, but rather decisively directed at the hideouts of the Jamaat-e-Ahrar and the Pakistani Taliban, which Islamabad has recently dubbed the "Kharijite sedition."
The Pakistani government considers the protection of the security of its citizens to be a top priority that gives it the legal and moral right to pursue threats emanating from neighbouring countries.
The Taliban government in Kabul has categorically rejected these operations, with its spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, describing the attacks as a "cowardly act of aggression" that violates the country's sovereignty and the principles of good neighborliness. Kabul insists on denying that its territory is being used to launch attacks against Pakistan, stressing that Pakistani aerial bombardment has hit residential areas and caused casualties and injuries among unarmed civilians, deepening the gap between the two countries.
The exorbitant bill for the closure of the crossings
The fragments of this clash go beyond military dimensions and hit the life and economic arteries of the two peoples, as most of the vital border crossings have been almost completely closed for months.
This closure led to an almost complete freeze on intra-regional trade and the halt of cargo trucks, which incurred heavy financial losses in the business sector in both countries and contributed to higher commodity prices in local markets.
On the humanitarian front, UN reports paint a bleak picture of the situation on both sides of the border, where repeated rounds of shelling and armed confrontations have killed hundreds and displaced tens of thousands of families from their border villages that have turned into dangerous contact zones, putting the region in front of a worsening humanitarian catastrophe that feeds on the absence of a political horizon.
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