Pakistani officials said on Tuesday they repelled an attack from Afghanistan, killing 67 Afghan fighters in heavy fighting along the border, with only one Pakistani casualty.
The Taliban junta in Afghanistan claimed it was the Pakistanis who attacked and suffered the brunt of the casualties.
According to Pakistan, the fifth consecutive day of hostilities between the two countries began with a wave of Taliban attacks against 16 different locations along the southern border, which were “successfully repelled” with 27 Afghan casualties.
Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said a second wave of 25 Afghan attacks then struck along the northern border, only to be repelled with even heavier Afghan casualties. The lone Pakistani casualty of the day was suffered during one of these battles.
Tarar said Monday’s clashes brought Afghanistan’s losses from the past five days up to 464, plus 665 wounded.
Taliban defense spokesman Enayatullah Khawarazmi dismissed Tarar’s account of the fighting as “baseless” and claimed only 28 of the Taliban’s fighters have been killed over the past five days. He further claimed at least 150 Pakistani troops have been killed, and over 200 wounded.
Khawarazmi claimed over 40 Pakistani border outposts have been captured by the Taliban, and another 13 have been destroyed.
Taliban officials also claim to have “thwarted” Pakistani airstrikes against Bagram Air Base, the former U.S. military base north of Kabul that was surrendered to the Islamist regime by President Joe Biden during his botched withdrawal of American forces in 2021.
According to the Taliban, several Pakistani warplanes penetrated Afghan airspace with the intent to bomb Bagram, but they were driven off by “anti-aircraft and missile defense systems.” Khawarazmi on Tuesday acknowledged that the Pakistani planes managed to drop some ordnance, but said the damage to Bagram was not “significant.”
Tarar insisted the airstrikes on Bagram were successful, and that if the Taliban did not stop supporting militant groups, Pakistan might escalate to targeted strikes on the Afghan leadership.
“We had intelligence that there was ammunition and critical equipment being used by terrorists to fight the Pakistan army along the border as well as by Afghan Taliban troops,” he said to explain why the attack on Bagram was necessary.
The United Nations said 42 civilians have been killed and 104 wounded since heavy fighting broke out between Pakistan and Afghanistan last Thursday, and another 20,000 families have been displaced, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation.
The Taliban on Monday claimed Pakistan indiscriminately shelled a refugee camp, killing three children and injuring three more. Tarar rejected the accusation, and also the U.N. tally of civilians killed, slamming the U.N. for relying on information from the Taliban and claiming most of the dead were actually militants wearing “civilian attire.”
“Pakistan has been precise in targeting terrorists and their supporters, including Afghan Taliban military installations that support terrorists,” he said.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have been scuffling ever since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Pakistan supported the long Taliban insurgency against the U.S. coalition in Afghanistan, but quickly changed its tune when the restored Taliban junta insisted on sheltering militant groups that aspire to overthrow the Pakistani government.
Hostilities were scaled back after a ceasefire mediated by Turkey and Qatar in October, but quickly ramped back up again. Last week, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said his government considers itself to be in a state of “open war” against Afghanistan.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday said hostilities against Afghanistan were justified because all diplomatic efforts to get Kabul to stop supporting anti-Pakistan militants had failed.
“They must choose to dismantle the terror groups that survive on conflict and its war economy,” Zardari said.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday told the Taliban it was “never too late to talk,” but warned, “We will finish this menace.”
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