Afghanistan’s Taliban government vowed on Tuesday to “respond appropriately” to deadly overnight air strikes, which they fiercely blamed on Pakistan, spiking tensions just a day after a fatal suicide bombing shook a Pakistani city. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid posted on X that an air raid on Khost province tragically “martyred” nine children and one woman, alleging Pakistani forces deliberately targeted “the house of a local civilian resident.”
Consequently, residents near the Pakistan frontier searched desperately through the rubble of the collapsed house and prepared graves for their victims. “Our request from the government of Pakistan is this: do not bomb ordinary people,” pleaded Sajidulrahman, a resident of the affected Jige Mughalgai area.
Escalation Following Peshawar Attack
Pakistan immediately denied carrying out any attack, with military spokesman Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry insisting that Pakistan “has not attacked Afghanistan.” Furthermore, he claimed Pakistan never attacks civilian populations, labeling the serious allegations from the interim Afghan government as entirely baseless.
This bombardment, however, immediately followed a suicide attack on Monday that killed three officers at the headquarters of Pakistan’s paramilitary force in Peshawar.
Although no group officially claimed responsibility for the Peshawar bombing, President Asif Zardari immediately blamed the TTP militant group, which Islamabad accuses of operating freely from Afghan soil.
Islamabad has long stated that militants behind a surge in recent violence, including the TTP, enjoy safe harbor inside Afghanistan, worsening already frayed relations. Therefore, security issues remain a critical sticking point, especially Pakistan’s persistent demand that Kabul curb TTP fighters, a necessity that continuously undermines diplomatic efforts since 2021.
