(AP Photo)
New Delhi: India on Sunday strongly condemned Pakistan’s overnight air strikes in neighboring Afghanistan during the holy month of Ramadan. The attack reportedly targeted so-called terrorist hideouts, which Islamabad blames for recent suicide bombings in Pakistan.In an official statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs highlighted the casualties of women and children in the attack. In response to media inquiries about Pakistan’s air strikes in Afghanistan, official spokesperson Shri Randhir Jaiswal said: India strongly condemns Pakistan’s air strikes on Afghan territory during Ramadan, which resulted in civilian casualties, including women and children.“
Kabul, meanwhile, has repeatedly denied accusations that armed groups are using Afghan territory to launch attacks against Pakistan.The Afghan Defense Ministry said on Sunday that “dozens of innocent civilians, including women and children, were killed or injured” in airstrikes that hit a school and homes in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Paktika.Pakistan said it killed 70 terrorists in a military strike targeting at least seven militant hideouts in Afghanistan, calling the operation retaliation for recent insurgent attacks in the country.“Afghanistan has been exporting terrorism for a long time. Pakistan is taking all actions to protect the lives and property of its citizens,” Talal Chaudhry, Pakistan’s Minister of State for Interior, told Geo News.Previously, Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting confirmed that the attack was carried out in response to recent suicide bombings in Islamabad, Bajaur and Bannu. However, Kabul warned that it would respond “necessarily and cautiously” to the attack.In the latest incident, an army lieutenant colonel and a soldier were killed in a suicide bombing in Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Saturday.According to a statement from Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the government has conclusive evidence that recent terror attacks, including the attack on a Shiite mosque in Islamabad, as well as the attacks in Bajaur and Bannu, and another incident in Bannu on Saturday, were allegedly carried out by Qalij militants on the instructions of their leadership and handlers in Afghanistan.The interior ministry said the Afghanistan-based Taliban of Pakistan (FAK) and its affiliates and the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP) claimed responsibility for the attack.Fitna-al-Khwarij is a term used by the Pakistani government to refer to the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
