KABUL: Pakistan’s military killed at least 70 militants early Sunday in attacks targeting their hideouts along the border with Afghanistan, Pakistan’s deputy interior minister said, blaming Pakistani militants for recent attacks inside the country. Talal Chaudhry, deputy interior minister of Pakistan, told Geo News that at least 70 militants were killed in the attack. He provided no evidence. Pakistani state media later reported that the number of militant casualties caused by the attack jumped to 80.The Afghan Defense Ministry said “multiple civilian areas” were attacked in Nangarhar and Paktika provinces in eastern Afghanistan, including a religious school and multiple civilian homes. The statement said the attack violated Afghan airspace and sovereignty. Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said earlier on Channel X that the attack “killed and injured dozens of people, including women and children.”Mawlawi Fazl Rahman Fayyaz, provincial director of the Afghan Red Crescent Society in Nangarhar province, said a total of 18 people died. A Taliban government security source said Pakistan’s claim of killing at least 80 militants was false and fabricated. The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Pakistani ambassador in Kabul and handed him a note of protest against the Pakistani air strikes. The ministry said in a statement that protecting Afghan territory was the Islamic Emirate’s “Islamic duty” and warned that Pakistan would be held responsible for the consequences of such attacks.On Sunday, villagers in Nangarhar province were seen clearing rubble after an airstrike, while mourners prepared for the funerals of the victims. Local tribal elder Habib Ullah said those killed in the attack were not militants. “They were poor people who suffered greatly. The people who were killed were neither Taliban nor military personnel nor members of the former government. They lived a simple village life,” he told The Associated Press.Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar wrote on X that the military conducted “selective intelligence-based operations” against seven camps of the Taliban in Pakistan (TTP) and its affiliates.The Pakistani attack came hours after a suicide bomber attacked a security convoy in Pakistan’s northwestern Bannu border area, killing two soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel.
