A fresh airstrike in retaliation of Afghanistan cross border attacks on Pakistan, the Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Asif wrote on X: “Our patience has reached its limit. Now it is an open war between us and you.” and declared an “open war” with Afghanistan.
According to reports, The escalation follows Pakistani airstrikes last Sunday along the Afghan border. Islamabad said it targeted camps of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). However Afghanistan alleged that the strikes hit civilian areas and violated its sovereignty.
Afghan spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said the cross-border assault was in response to repeated Pakistani actions along the disputed Durand Line. Pakistan’s military said it launched an operation named “Ghazab Lil Haq” in response to what it called unprovoked firing from across the border. Afghanistan said its forces had carried out “large-scale offensive operations” against Pakistani military positions along the Durand Line.
Former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai says the country “will defend their beloved homeland with complete unity in all circumstances and will respond to aggression with courage” amid Pakistan’s attacks. “Pakistan cannot free itself from the violence and bombings those problems it has created itself but must change its own policy and choose the path of good neighborliness, respect, and civilized relations with Afghanistan,” he said on X.
The two neighboring countries had claimed they carried out airstrikes and ground attacks. Although the casualty figures from both sides have not been independently verified. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Human Rights chief Volker Türk have both commented on the unfolding situation and urged both nations to adhere strictly to their obligations under international law, with a specific emphasis on international humanitarian law.
Pakistan-Afghanistan ties have been marked by mutual distrust, rancor, recriminations, and hostility. This negativity between Pakistan and Afghanistan has continued during both civilian and direct military rule in the former, and fundamental system transformations, Except for brief periods since 1947.