Pakistan says prioritizes diplomacy, day after airstrikes in Afghanistan kill 46

Celina Ali

Islamabad: Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said on Thursday Islamabad prioritized diplomacy with neighboring Afghanistan, a day after the country’s Afghan Taliban rulers said at least 46 people including women and children had been killed in Pakistani airstrikes in the eastern border province of Paktika.

The Pakistan army and government have not yet officially confirmed the airstrikes, which the Afghan Taliban have condemned, saying they had targeted “mostly civilians.”

Media widely reported on Wednesday that Pakistani security forces targeted multiple suspected hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), dismantling a training facility and killing several insurgents.

At a weekly press briefing on Thursday, Baloch declined to confirm Tuesday’s airstrikes but said Pakistan was committed to the security of its people, and its security and law enforcement personnel conducted operations based on “concrete intelligence” against terror groups operating in the border areas.

“I would like to add here that Pakistan believes in dialogue and diplomacy. We have always prioritized diplomacy in our relations with Afghanistan,” Baloch said. “Despite the presence of terror hideouts and sanctuaries, and the consistent threat they pose to Pakistan, we have always opted for diplomacy.”

Baloch reiterated Pakistan’s demand that Afghanistan prevent the use of its territory for terror attacks against Pakistan, calling on the neighbor to work with Islamabad to combat the threat posed by groups like the TTP.

“And any issues that either side has with regards to border management, trade and transit trade, security, terrorism, these issues remain high on our bilateral agenda,” Baloch added.

Border tensions between the two countries have escalated since the Taliban government seized power in 2021, with Pakistan battling a resurgence of militant violence in its western border regions.

Islamabad has accused Kabul’s Taliban authorities of harboring militant fighters, allowing them to strike on Pakistani soil with impunity. Kabul has denied the allegations.

The banned TTP group said in a statement on Wednesday the strikes had hit “the homes of defenseless refugees” on Tuesday evening, killing at least 50 civilians, including 27 women and children.

Deadly air strikes by Pakistan’s military in the border regions of Afghanistan in March that the Taliban authorities said killed eight civilians had prompted skirmishes on the frontier.