Pakistan says it carried out ground operation, strikes along Afghan border, killing 29 militants

Pakistani security forces carried out a ground operation and "calibrated strikes" along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on Sunday, resulting in the deaths of 29 militants, officials reported. The operation, launched in the restive border region, targeted militant hideouts and safe havens, according to Information Minister Attaullah Tarar. He stated the action was a direct response to multiple militant attacks that have occurred across Pakistan in recent times.

Authorities have increasingly blamed the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and affiliated militant factions for a surge in violence, particularly attacks on police and security forces. This latest operation comes just a day after militants attacked the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in Karachi, killing three soldiers. Security forces neutralized three attackers and apprehended another, identified as an Afghan national.

The Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack. Minister Tarar specified that Sunday's border operation specifically targeted the hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban, distinguishing them from the Afghan Taliban, though the two groups are allies. The Afghan Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021.

These recent cross-border actions are expected to intensify the already tense relations between Pakistan and Kabul. Sunday's strikes follow less than three weeks after Pakistan's military conducted airstrikes on what it described as militant hideouts within Afghanistan. This escalation occurred after a period of relative calm, which had followed what Islamabad termed an "open war" between the two neighbors, despite international mediation efforts aimed at achieving lasting peace. The conflict has seen hundreds killed in tit-for-tat military actions since February.

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calibrated strikes