Kabul, Sep 21 (IANS) : Taliban chief spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid on Monday condemned Pakistan’s airstrikes on Kunar and Paktika provinces of Afghanistan, which claimed three lives, and warned that they would give an “appropriate response” to the attacks.
Mujahid said that Pakistan’s attacks carried out on Monday targeted Afghan territory and civilians. He claimed that one woman and two men were killed while two women and two men were injured in Pakistan’s bombing in Kunar. He said that a local shop and a house were targeted in the airstrike in Paktika. He accused Pakistani military leadership of launching strikes on Afghan territory to divert people’s attention from security failures within their country.
“Crime and Aggression: Last night, the invading Pakistani army bombarded civilian areas of Afghanistan in Kunar and Paktika provinces. In Kunar, one woman and two men were martyred, and two women and two men were wounded; all of them are local civilian residents. In Paktika, one house and one local shop were bombed, with no casualties reported,” Mujahid posted on X.
“We condemn this aggression and oppression and consider it a repetition of crimes. Pakistan’s military establishment, in order to divert attention from its own internal security failures, has once again committed such a crime. Afghans will give an appropriate response to this aggression, God willing,” he added.
The latest attacks come amid escalating tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan over the past few months, with repeated exchanges of fire and growing concerns over civilian casualties. Pakistan has repeatedly accused the Taliban of failing to stop armed groups, especially the TTP, from operating on Afghan soil, a claim rejected by Afghan authorities.
On July 28, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said that 57 people have been killed and 342 others injured in cross-border armed violence in Afghanistan between April 1 and June 30.
In a report, UNAMA said airstrikes and ground engagements were the primary causes of civilian harm. It attributed all cross-border civilian casualties recorded during this period to Pakistani security forces.
According to UNAMA’s update on civilian casualties in Afghanistan from April-June, 26 children were killed, and 86 were injured, while six women were killed and 34 were injured.
In the statement, the UN agency stated, “The largest number of civilian casualties were caused by airstrikes carried out by Pakistani security forces in Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces on June 28, followed by shelling in Kunar province between April 27 to 29 April.”
On July 15, US-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for an impartial investigation into possible war crimes following Pakistan’s recent strikes in Afghanistan, expressing grave concern over civilian casualties.
The rights body noted that although civilian casualties alone are not conclusive evidence of “laws-of-war violations”, such reports of civilian deaths heightened the urgent need for independent probes of “possible war crimes by either attacking or defending forces.”
“International humanitarian law requires warring parties to take all feasible precautions to minimise civilian harm. Attacking forces must at all times distinguish between civilians and civilian objects on the one hand, and combatants and military objectives on the other, and only target the latter,” the HRW stated.
“Defending forces must, to the extent feasible, protect civilians under their control from the effects of attack, including by avoiding locating military objectives near densely populated areas. However, violations by one side do not relieve the other of its own obligations,” it added.
