Pakistan Denies Striking Afghanistan
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has denied claims by Afghan authorities regarding alleged attacks on a drug rehabilitation centre in the country.
“Pakistan’s strikes were executed with precision and planned carefully to minimise additional damage,” the ministry stated.
“This distortion of facts, presented as an attack on a drug rehabilitation centre, is intended to provoke tension and conceal illegal support for cross-border terrorism,” it added.
The precision strikes, according to authorities, targeted military objectives and infrastructure supporting terrorist organisations, including warehouses containing technical equipment and ammunition belonging to the Afghan Taliban and Fitna al-Khawarij in Kabul and Nangarhar, which have been used against Pakistani civilians.
“The detonation of ammunition stockpiled and used by major terrorist perpetrators also completely contradicts these false claims,” the statement said.
On Monday evening, 16 March, TOLOnews reported explosions and gunfire across various parts of Kabul. Taliban supreme leader’s spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid claimed that Pakistan had attacked the rehabilitation centre in the capital, resulting in deaths and injuries. He pledged that such actions would not go unanswered.
Meanwhile, the Taliban supreme leader’s deputy spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat stated that the death toll from Pakistan’s strikes on Afghanistan has reached 400 people, with 250 others wounded.
Pakistani military forces claimed to have killed at least 70 militants in strikes along the Afghan border on Sunday, 22 February morning. Pakistan conducted further airstrikes in the Nangarhar and Paktika regions of Afghanistan, which Kabul claims resulted in civilian casualties, whilst Islamabad maintains the operations targeted the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP).
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have reached a historic low as cross-border military operations continue, with Pakistan launching strikes in response to what it characterises as Taliban aggression.