After Pakistan attacked the border areas of Afghanistan, Afghan Taliban has carried out retaliatory airstrikes instigating a new version of clashes between the terror sponsoring regimes of South Asia.
Afghanistan Taliban’s defence minister Mohammad Yaqoob has confirmed that they targeted Pakistan Army’s installation in the border area. Reportedly, Afghanistan bombarded border village of Burkai in Upper Khurram with mortar shells. However, there were no casualties but only shops and other buildings.
Afghanistan’s bombardment comes as a retaliation against Pakistan’s airstrike which Islamabad claimed to have been conducted targeting TTP terrorist Abdullah Shah. The attack led to the killings of 6 civilians with 3 women and 3 children in Paktika province, a house was also destroyed. Along with that, two other women were also killed in Khost province.
As claimed by Afghanistan Taliban and TTP, the Pakistan Army’s target Abdullah Shah is safe and is not present in Afghanistan but across the border in Pakistan. To that extent, TTP has also released a video verifying the above claims.
Airstrikes: Escalation of conflict
The incident has ignited friction between the two terror sponsoring countries. Taliban has in its official statement has warned Pakistan against attacking its territory. It stated that Afghanistan has a history of fighting superpowers and further attack on its territory could lead to undesirable consequences for Pakistan.
Notably, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was once used by Pakistan as a tool for instigating terror in the neighbouring countries and was getting Afghanistan Taliban’s support in it. But the TTP turned hostile and claims itself as the legitimate sovereign of parts of Pakistan in border region. The hostility further increased after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, which provided safe haven to TTP against Pakistan. The dialogue between Pakistan and Afghan Taliban has become sour since then.
Consequently, the incident of clashes between TTP and Pakistan have increased. Now the exchange of attacks from either side have escalated the conflict to another level, where both the actors have engaged in violent attacks.