Pakistan says forces kill 29 militants near Afghan border

Pakistani security forces killed 29 militants in a ground operation and strikes along the Afghanistan border, officials said Sunday, a day after an attack on a paramilitary headquarters in Karachi left three soldiers dead.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said in a post on X that the operation was launched in response to multiple militant attacks across Pakistan. He said security forces first carried out an intelligence-based ground operation in Bajaur, a district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border.

“As a result of precise and skillful engagement, high value Khwarji Commander Khan Farosh” was killed along with three others, Tarar said.

He said Pakistani forces then conducted “calibrated” or precision strikes on militant camps and hideouts along the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier. Three targets in Afghanistan’s Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces were destroyed, killing 25 militants, Tarar said. He said large quantities of weapons and ammunition stored at the targeted hideouts were also destroyed.

“Pakistan has always strived for maintaining peace and stability in the region, but at the same time shall not compromise on the safety and security of our citizens, which remains our top priority,” Tarar said.

There was no immediate response from Afghanistan, Al Jazeera reported.

The operation followed Saturday’s attack on the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in Karachi, where militants armed with guns and explosives killed three soldiers. Security forces killed three attackers and arrested another, whom Pakistan’s military identified as a wounded Afghan national.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack in a statement Saturday night. Tarar said the latest operation targeted hideouts and safe havens used by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fitna al-Khwarij, a term Pakistan uses for the Pakistani Taliban.

Pakistan has seen a rise in attacks on police and security forces in recent years. Authorities blame the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, and allied militant groups for much of the violence. The TTP is separate from the Afghan Taliban, though the two are allies. The Afghan Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021.

The strikes are likely to further strain relations between Islamabad and Kabul, Al Jazeera reported. The outlet said Sunday’s operation came less than three weeks after Pakistan’s military launched airstrikes on what it described as militant hideouts in Afghanistan, ending about a month of relative calm after Islamabad had described an “open war” between the neighboring countries.

Al Jazeera reported that the escalation follows months of tit-for-tat military action between Pakistan and Afghanistan. It said hundreds of people have been killed in cross-border fighting since February, when Afghanistan launched retaliatory strikes after Pakistan carried out airstrikes inside Afghan territory. Multiple rounds of internationally mediated peace talks have failed to produce a lasting ceasefire, according to Al Jazeera. China hosted the two sides in April, and Beijing later said Pakistan and Afghanistan had agreed not to escalate the conflict and to explore a solution, the outlet reported.

Pakistan has carried out multiple strikes since last year along the border and inside Afghanistan, targeting alleged hideouts of the TTP and other militants. Islamabad accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring militants who carry out deadly attacks inside Pakistan, especially the TTP. Kabul denies the charge.