ISLAMABAD (AP) – Pakistan on Sunday fired a harsh warning to Afghanistan’s religious rulers to stop protecting local Pakistani Taliban fighters who have launched increasingly deadly attacks on the country’s military.
The warning followed Afghan reports that Pakistani planes carried out bombing raids in Afghanistan’s eastern provinces of Khost and Kunar late Friday, killing civilians.
Pakistan has so far declined to comment on the Afghan allegations, instead blaming the Afghan Taliban for failing to stop attacks on Pakistan by militants in Afghanistan.
“Terrorists are using Afghan soil to conduct activities inside Pakistan with impunity,” the State Department statement said, which was unusually harsh in its language.
Pakistan has often been accused of harboring Afghanistan’s Taliban fighters before they came to power last August when America ended its 20-year war. Since coming to power, Islamabad has paved the way for urging the world to take issue with the sectarian Afghan government.
However, it is not clear whether Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif will support the Afghan Taliban in the same way as his predecessor Imran Khan, a cricketer-turned-conservative Islamist leader who was ousted in a politically turbulent no-confidence vote last weekend.
On Saturday, the Taliban foreign ministry called the Pakistani ambassador to complain about civilians killed in the bombings that reportedly took place late Friday and killed refugees in Afghanistan’s eastern provinces of Kunar and Khost.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid warned Pakistan “not to try the Afghans’ patience on such issues and not to repeat the same mistake again, or the consequences will be dire.” He did not elaborate on the aftermath or the number of people killed.
Afghanistan’s main news channel, TOLO News, showed images of the bodies of children allegedly killed in the airstrike. The same channel showed protests by hundreds of residents of the eastern province of Khost condemning Pakistan and shouting anti-Pakistan slogans.
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Pakistan has not confirmed any attack on Afghanistan, and Sunday’s statement criticized Taliban rulers for doing too little to prevent Pakistani Taliban fighters from using their territory to attack Pakistan.
“In recent days there has been a significant increase in incidents along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, with Pakistani security forces being attacked from across the border,” the Pakistani statement said. Last week, seven Pakistani military personnel were killed in an ambush near the border later claimed by Pakistani Taliban known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP.
Militant attacks in Pakistan have accelerated since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan. The attacks were alleged by either the Pakistani Taliban or an Islamic State affiliate, also headquartered in Afghanistan, but against which the Taliban have been fighting.
By the end of March this year, Pakistan had experienced 52 attacks by militants, compared with 35 in the same period last year, according to Amir Rana, executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, an independent think tank that oversees militant activities in Pakistan. Attacks have also become deadlier. So far this year, 155 people have been killed in such attacks in Pakistan, compared to 68 last year.
The border between the two countries, known as the Durrand Line, runs along the 2,670-kilometer dividing line. The Durrand Line runs through the region’s ethnic Pashtun population, often dividing tribes and families between the two countries. Established by the British in the 19th century, successive Afghan rulers refused to recognize it as an official border, instead laying claim to Pakistani territory known as Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Province, where ethnic Pashtuns are dominant.
Since taking power, the Afghan Taliban have clashed with Pakistan several times over a border fence that Islamabad is building.
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Associated Press writer Tameem Akhgar in Islamabad contributed to this report.