Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
WASHINGTON DC, 20th March. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid on Tuesday said in a statement confirmed the aerial strikes in the Khost and Paktika provinces said “such incidents can have very bad consequences which will be out of Pakistan’s control”.
The tensionsflared up between the two nations launched airstrikes in the border regions of Afghanistan, reportedly killed 8 civilians, including three children.
According to TOLO News, the Taliban said they have responded to these attacks and targeted Pakistani military centres with heavy weapons.
Mujahid said the bombardment began at around 3 a.m. (local time) and targeted the houses of civilians in the Barmal district of Paktika province and the Afghan Dubai area of Sepera district in Khost province.
He called the “reckless action” a violation of Afghanistan’s territory, he said that “Pakistan should not blame Afghanistan for the lack of control, incompetence, and problems in its territory”.
The aerial strikes reportedly were in response to last week’s Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan attack on Pakistani armymen in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Mir Ali region.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced the airstrikes by Taliban authorities which killed 7 soldiers, including a Lieutenant Colonel and a Captain.
President Zardari vowed retaliation said: “Pakistan has decided that whoever will enter our borders, homes or country and commit terror, we will respond to them strongly, regardless of who it is or from which country.”
The media outlets in Pakistan reported that TTP commander Abdullah Shah was killed in the Pakistani airstrikes, Mujahid said in the statement: “The person named Abdullah Shah, who the Pakistani side claims was targeted in the incident, is in Pakistan.”
This came as a video went viral on X showing a man, identifying himself as Shah, saying: “Whatever propaganda is being spread against me is baseless.”
The TTP, known as the Pakistan Taliban, became active in 2007 and operates across the porous border with Afghanistan, even as the Taliban denied harbouring them.
The group has been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks in Pakistan, targeted both the military establishment and civilians.
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