Nighttime strikes by Pakistani forces killed at least 36 and injured more than 160 in Afghanistan, the Taliban said on June 29, as tensions between the countries continued to escalate.
Islamabad’s security forces carried out a ground operation along the Pakistan–Afghanistan border late on June 27, which was swiftly followed by strikes against what Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar called in a June 28 X post “hideouts and safe havens of terrorists.”
Tarar said that the action had resulted in the deaths of 29 terrorists.
“On 28 June 2026, security forces conducted an intelligence-based ground operation against a group of terrorists near Pakistan–Afghanistan border in Bajaur District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he wrote, describing the ground operation.
“As a result of precise and skillful engagement, high-value Khwarji Commander Khan Farosh aka Zabal, along with 3 terrorists belonging to Indian proxy Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, were sent to hell while several others got injured.”
Tarar said a further 25 targets were killed in the following “precision strikes” along with “large quantities of weapons and ammunition.”
He said the operations were launched in response to multiple attacks by these groups across Pakistan, specifically referencing a recent attack on the Pakistan Rangers headquarters in Karachi.
In response, the Taliban, which has run Afghanistan since the United States exited the country in 2021, condemned the strikes as a “cowardly act of aggression” and an “act of brutality.”
Deputy spokesman of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban’s official name for the country) Hamdullah Fitrat said in a June 29 post on X that Pakistani forces targeted a home in Chamkani district, in Paktia province, killing an elderly man and a child, while other family members were injured, saying that after residents gathered to rescue people, the area was struck again, killing 28 villagers and wounding 158.
He added that a further six people, mostly women and children, were killed in a village in Giyan district, Paktika province, when another home was struck, and that another home in Kunar province was also hit, causing no casualties but causing “the complete destruction of the house and the infliction of severe material damage.”
“Thus, the toll of victims from the attacks that occurred last night has risen, so far, to 36 civilian martyrs, including women and children, in addition to the injury of 163 others,” Fitrat said.
The Epoch Times was not able to independently verify the figures given by either the Pakistani government or the Taliban.
The Pakistani operation followed an attack on the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in Karachi, which killed three soldiers on June 27, according to a post on X from the official spokesperson for the Pakistan Armed Forces, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry.
“On 27 June 2026, a cowardly terrorist attack was carried out on a Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) Camp in Karachi by Khwarij belonging to Indian proxy, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar,” Chaudhry said.
“The assailants, after a blast at main gate of the Camp, attempted to breach the perimeter security; however, their nefarious designs were decisively foiled by the vigilant and resolute response of Rangers troops eliminating three Kharjis and capturing one Kharji, who is an Afghan national, in injured condition.”
He added that “during fire exchange, three brave sons of soil, rendered the ultimate sacrifice,” while four other soldiers sustained injuries
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack.
The June 28 cross-border strikes and ground operation came less than three weeks after the Pakistani military launched airstrikes on what it said were militant hideouts in Afghanistan.
Pakistani officials confirmed the military had carried out strikes the same day, saying it targeted terrorist hideouts and infrastructure linked to recent attacks inside Pakistan, and that 26 terrorists were killed.
Those strikes followed a June 9 attack in the Hasan Khel area of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan. Pakistan’s Interior Ministry said suspected Pakistani Taliban terrorists attacked a security post, sparking a gun battle that killed six members of the Federal Constabulary.
Pakistan says Afghanistan is providing sanctuary to terrorists responsible for attacks inside Pakistan, particularly the TTP. Afghan authorities deny those claims.
The TTP is separate from the Afghan Taliban but maintains close ties with the group. Washington designated TTP as a foreign terrorist organization on Sept. 1, 2010.
The Afghan Taliban returned to power in August 2021 after the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces from Afghanistan.
The renewed violence comes despite diplomatic efforts to ease tensions between Islamabad and Kabul.
