ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghan security forces exchanged heavy fire on Monday morning following the launch of Pakistan Air Force cross-border aerial strikes against suspected hideouts of banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Afghanistan, killing several suspected militants.

Pakistan carried out air strikes inside Afghanistan’s Barmal district of Paktika province and Sepra area of Khost district against TTP hideouts following Saturday’s seven casualties, including two senior officers of the Pakistan army including a Lieutenant Colonel and a captain, in TTP raid against a Pakistani military base in North Waziristan border district that killed seven soldiers, including two officers.

Official and local sources told Business Recorder that several shells fired from Afghanistan hit civilian and military installations in the bordering villages of Borki and Kharlachi along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border early on Monday morning at around 7:00 am with no casualties reported.

They said that Pakistani security forces retaliated with heavy weaponry and the exchange of fire was continuing till the filing of this report.

In a statement, Foreign Office confirmed that Pakistan carried out intelligence-based anti-terrorist operations in the border regions inside Afghanistan on Monday morning.

“The target of today’s operation was terrorists belonging to Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group, who along with TTP, are responsible for multiple terrorist attacks inside Pakistan, resulting in deaths of hundreds of civilians and law enforcement officials. The latest attack took place on 16th March 2024 at a security post in Mir Ali in North Waziristan and claimed the lives of seven Pakistani soldiers,” Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said.

Over the past two years Pakistan has repeatedly conveyed its serious concerns to the Interim Afghan Government over the presence of terror outfits including TTP inside Afghanistan, she stated adding: “These terrorists pose a grave threat to Pakistan’s security and have consistently used Afghan territory to launch terror attacks inside Pakistani territory.”

She added that Pakistan accords prime importance to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan and has, therefore, always prioritized dialogue and cooperation in confronting the terrorist threat.

“We have repeatedly urged the Afghan authorities to take concrete and effective action to ensure that Afghan soil is not used as a staging ground for terrorism against Pakistan. We have also called on them to deny safe havens to TTP and to hand over its leadership to Pakistan,” Mumtaz Baloch said.

Pakistan has great respect for the people of Afghanistan. However, certain elements among those in power in Afghanistan are actively patronizing TTP and using them as a proxy against Pakistan. Such an approach against a brotherly country, which stood with the people of Afghanistan through thick and thin, manifests shortsightedness, she stated.

“It ignores the support extended by Pakistan to the people of Afghanistan over the last several decades. We urge these elements in power to rethink the policy of siding with Khwarij terrorists shedding the blood of innocent Pakistanis and to make a clear choice to stand with the people of Pakistan,” she added.

“Terrorist groups like TTP are a collective threat to regional peace and security. We fully realize the challenge Afghan authorities face in combating the threat posed by TTP. Pakistan would therefore continue to work towards finding joint solutions in countering terrorism and to prevent any terrorist organization from sabotaging bilateral relations with Afghanistan”, she added.

Talking to this correspondent, locals in Borki and Kharlachi bordering villages said that people have moved their families to safer areas to other villages and Parachinar city, which is around 13 kilometers from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

A senior official of the local administration said on condition of anonymity that security forces were on high alert while local tribesmen are cooperating with the forces. He said that the situation is “under control” and Pakistan army will keep giving befitting response to any cross border shelling on civilians as well as military positions.

The official further said that a state of “emergency” has been imposed on all hospitals of district Kurram while families in the villages along Pakistan-Afghan border have been asked to move to safer locations.

Jalal Baghash, an elder of the Kurram’sTuri and Bangash tribes, strongly condemned the cross border aggression against the civilian population as well as the military sites. He said that the security forces should undertake measures to stop such cross border shelling in the future.

Afghan Defence ministry, in a statement, confirmed that Afghan forces “retaliated” against Pakistan’s air strikes by targeting military sites.

“Pakistan’s jets attacked civilian homes in Afghanistan’s Paktika and Khost districts. In retaliation, Afghan forces struck Pakistan’s military sites along the border. Afghanistan vows to defend its sovereignty against any aggression,” the Afghan interim defence minister was quoted in the Afghan Defence Ministry statement.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed in a statement that Pakistani planes had bombed multiple locations in its southeastern Paktika and Khost provinces and claimed the attack resulted in the deaths of eight civilians, including women and children.

“Pakistani planes bombed civilian houses at around 3 am in Paktika, as a result, six people including three women and three children were killed. A house was destroyed in Khost with two casualties, both women…The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly condemns these attacks and calls this reckless action a violation of Afghanistan’s territory,” Mujahid said. The veracity of the Afghan interim government spokesperson’s claim of civilian casualties could not be confirmed independently.

Mujahid denied yet again that the Taliban allowed Afghan soil to be used by militant groups against Pakistan or any other country.

“Pakistan should not blame Afghanistan for lack of control, incompetence, and problems in its own territory. Such incidents can have very bad consequences, which will be out of Pakistan’s control,” the spokesman warned without further elaborating.

Reuters adds: “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan does not allow anyone to compromise security by using Afghan territory,” Zabiullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban administration, said in a statement. The strikes killed five women and three children in the eastern border provinces of Khost and Paktika, he added.