Khawaja Asif, Pakistan’s defense minister, on Friday declared “open war” against the Taliban government in Afghanistan, hours after Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Kabul and two other Afghan provinces in “retaliation” for a “cross-border attack” by Afghanistan.
Afghanistan Taliban government said it had launched attacks against Pakistani military positions along their border in response Pakistani airstrikes last week in the latest escalation of violence between neighboring countries that has caused a Qatar-brokered ceasefire looking increasingly shaky.
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“Our patience has reached its limit. It is now open war between us and you,” Asif posted on X. Earlier, Pakistan released aerial footage Kabul is attacking.
Thursday strikes
In Thursday’s attacks, Pakistan said it had launched a retaliatory operation in response to alleged border attacks by the Afghan Taliban and said it had killed over 130 Taliban fighters. Operation Ghazab lil Haq began late Thursday night after the Afghan Taliban reportedly launched attacks on several border crossings.
Tensions between the two neighbors have been simmering for several months, with dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants killed in deadly border clashes in October. The violence followed explosions in Kabul that Afghan officials blamed on Pakistan. At the time, Islamabad was leading strikes deep inside Afghanistan to target militant hideouts.
A Qatar-brokered ceasefire between the two countries is largely in place, but both sides have still fired occasionally across the border. Several rounds of peace talks in November failed to produce a formal agreement.
On Sunday, Pakistan’s military carried out strikes along the border with Afghanistan and said it had killed at least 70 militants.
Afghanistan denied the claim, saying dozens of civilians, including women and children, had been killed. The Afghan Ministry of Defense said “various civilian areas” in eastern Afghanistan were hit, including a madrassa, an Islamic seminary and several houses. The ministry said the attacks violated Afghanistan’s airspace and sovereignty.
What is the essence of border tensions?
The series of attacks threatens a fragile truce after border clashes in October that killed dozens of soldiers, the worst fighting between the two countries since the Taliban seized control of Kabul in 2021.
Pakistan welcomed the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, with then-Prime Minister Imran Khan declaring that Afghans had “broken the shackles of slavery”. But Islamabad soon discovered that the Taliban were not cooperating as it had hoped, according to a Reuters report.
However, over the years, Pakistan has accused Afghanistan of harboring armed groups led by the Pakistani Taliban, known by its acronym TTP, on its territory. Militancy has increased every year since 2022, with attacks by TTP and Baloch insurgents on the rise, according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, a global monitoring organization cited by Reuters.
Blame it on Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
Islamabad says there has been a sharp rise in militant violence in Pakistan in recent years, much of which Pakistan blames on the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Baloch separatist groups. The TTP is separate from the Afghan Taliban, but shares deep ideological, social and linguistic ties with it. TTP emerged in 2007 in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
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The Afghan Taliban has repeatedly denied allowing militants to use Afghan territory to launch attacks in Pakistan.
Pearl Pandya, a senior South Asia analyst at the US-based independent, non-partisan monitoring team Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, told Al Jazeera that the “porous border” with Afghanistan provides a safe haven for fighters to retreat to amid military pressure.
“However, the Afghan Taliban appears unwilling to take serious action against the TTP, partly because of the previous kinship between the two groups, but also out of fear that TTP militants will defect to its main rival, the Islamic State’s Khorasan province,” she added.
Ready to ensure the security of the nation: Shehbaz Sharif
Earlier this week, President Asif Ali Zardari also expressed that Pakistan will not compromise on peace and territorial integrity, saying: “The response of our armed forces is comprehensive and decisive. Those who mistake our peace for weakness will face a strong response – and no one will be out of reach.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that the people and armed forces of Pakistan are always ready to ensure the security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the nation. In a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, Sharif reiterated the commitment of the armed forces to protect the security and peace of the country.
“Our forces are fully capable of crushing any aggressive ambitions,” he said. “There will be no compromise in the defense of the beloved motherland and any aggression will be met with an appropriate response,” he said.
Pakistan vs Afghanistan – What’s Next?
as things stand Pakistan’s Defense Minister declared “open war” on the Taliban government in Afghanistan on social media. And earlier, after airstrikes in Pakistan, the Taliban warned that “an appropriate and moderate response will be taken at an appropriate time.”
Analysts say this is likely to hinder cross-border actions. From a military point of view, there is a big mismatch between the two countries. At 172,000, the Taliban has less than a third of Pakistan’s military personnel.
Although the Taliban own at least six planes and 23 helicopters, their condition is unknown and they have no fighter jets or an effective air force, Reuters reported.
Our patience has reached its limit. Now there is open war between us and you.
Pakistan’s armed forces include more than 600,000 active members, have more than 6,000 armored fighting vehicles and more than 400 fighter planesaccording to 2025 data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies. The country is also nuclear-armed, according to news agencies.
(With inputs from Reuters, AP and Al Jazeera)
Key things
- The fragile ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan is increasingly threatened by retaliatory strikes.
- Pakistan’s military says a significant number of Taliban fighters have been killed in recent operations.
- The conflict is fueled by allegations of cross-border militancy and Afghanistan’s harboring of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP).
