ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has boosted security and arrested dozens of suspects as it fears rising wave of militant attacks following its air strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s Junior Interior Minister said on Wednesday. “Our forces are on high-alert to combat any attacks,” the minister, Talal Chaudhry, told Reuters. “You know the militants always react whenever we go after their hideouts in Afghanistan.” Pakistan carried out air strikes on targets in Afghanistan over the weekend on what it said were militant targets responsible for a spate of recent suicide bombings on Pakistani soil.
Islamabad blames Kabul for allowing the fighters to use Afghanistan as a safe haven. Kabul denies the charges, saying the militancy is Pakistan’s internal problem.
Pakistani and Afghan forces exchanged fire along their border on Tuesday, with each side accusing the other of initiating the clash.
There have also been a number of militant attacks, including the ambush of a police vehicle in Kohat city in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in which five officers and two civilians were killed and a suicide bombing at a checkpoint that killed two policemen.
Chaudhry said the retaliatory attacks by militants proved Islamabad’s case that they had linkages in Afghanistan, adding that the forces had averted several attacks in recent weeks and arrested a number of suspects, including Afghans.
Security forces have accelerated search and intelligence based operations and “have arrested dozens of suspected militants, their handlers and their facilitators,” the minister said.
Multiple sources added that Pakistan’s intelligence agencies have issued alerts for a possible surge in terror attacks in Pakistan in coming days.
Urban centers, markets, security forces and places of worship could be possible targets, according to the alerts, the sources said.
“We have been given a strong caution about more terror attacks in our official communications. In this regard, we have almost doubled our search operations across Pakistan,” said an intelligence official.
Another intelligence official added the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are already under terror attacks and “we fear that Afghanistan will retaliate against Pakistan through terror networks in Punjab and Sindh as well.”
Militancy is a growing problem for Pakistan with the number of attacks rising every year since 2022, according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), a global monitoring organization.
Data from ACLED shows attacks in Pakistan rose nearly fourfold to 2,425 in 2025 from 658 in 2022 and over the same period, TTP attacks increased more than seven-fold to 838 from 118.
Pakistan wary of militant attacks after Afghanistan air strikes
https://arab.news/j7jke
Pakistan wary of militant attacks after Afghanistan air strikes
- Pakistan boosts security, arrests suspects after air strikes in Afghanistan
- Intelligence warns of potential surge in terror attacks in Pakistan
Ukraine says Russia launched a major aerial attack before Kyiv’s talks with US
- The bombardment targeted critical infrastructure and residential areas across eight regions of Ukraine, Zelensky said
- Dozens of people, including children, were injured, officials said
KYIV: Russia launched a barrage of 420 drones and 39 missiles at Ukraine overnight, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday, as US and Ukrainian envoys held more talks in Geneva on ending the war that is now in its fifth year.
The bombardment, which included 11 ballistic missiles, targeted critical infrastructure and residential areas across eight regions of Ukraine, Zelensky said. Dozens of people, including children, were injured, officials said, though authorities did not immediately publish a confirmed total.
Zelensky said late Wednesday he had spoken by phone with US President Donald Trump and thanked him for his “efforts and engagement” in pursuing peace negotiations.
The US-brokered talks between Moscow and Kyiv are continuing but are deadlocked on the issue of the future of Ukrainian territory that Russia claims as its own.
Zelensky has pushed for a summit with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, saying a face-to-face meeting could be decisive in unlocking an agreement, but the Kremlin has rebuffed that proposal beyond inviting the Ukrainian president to Moscow, which Zelensky refused.
Trump representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who were also discussing nuclear negotiations with Iran in Geneva before turning to the war in Europe, met with Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council. They also joined Trump’s call with Zelensky.
The envoys were to discuss economic support and the recovery of Ukraine, ways of attracting investment to the country, and frameworks for long-term cooperation, Umerov said on X.
Also, the meeting would look at preparations for the next round of trilateral negotiations involving Russia and consider possible further exchanges of prisoner, according to Umerov.
Washington is looking to keep momentum in its yearlong push to stop the fighting and overcome deep enmity between the warring countries.
Ukrainian and European officials have accused Putin of feigning interest in peace negotiations, hoping to avoid punitive US measures such as additional sanctions while pressing forward with the invasion.
Thursday’s talks between the American and Ukrainian envoys were to address details of a possible postwar recovery plan for Ukraine and discuss preparations for an upcoming trilateral meeting with Moscow officials, perhaps next week, according to Zelensky.
He said he has also tasked Umerov with discussing a possible prisoner exchange.
Russia returned 1,000 bodies of fallen soldiers to Ukraine, and got back 35 bodies of its fallen troops, Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation at previous talks with Ukraine, said Thursday. He did not say when the exchange happened.
Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War later confirmed the return, though it referred to “bodies which, according to preliminary information provided by the Russian side, may belong to Ukrainian defenders.”
Russia struck gas infrastructure in the Poltava region and electrical substations in the Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, Zelensky said. Emergency crews responded in five other regions, as well as in the capital.
Ukraine’s air defenses shot down most of the Russian missiles, Zelensky said, crediting Western partners for timely delivery of additional air defense interceptors. Ukraine needs foreign help to sustain its fight against Russia’s bigger forces.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha urged allied countries to provide more military aid.
“When the whole world demands Moscow to finally stop this senseless war, Putin bets on more terror, attacks and aggression,” Sybiha said in a post on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 17 Ukrainian drones overnight over a number of Russian regions, as well as the Black and Azov Seas.
Ukraine’s domestically developed long-range drones have struck oil refineries, fuel depots and military logistics hubs deep inside Russia.
Meanwhile, Russia continued to push allegations of a purported plot by European nations to provide Kyiv with a nuclear bomb, without providing any evidence.
The Kremlin-controlled lower house of the Russian parliament on Thursday unanimously approved an address urging the United Nations and European lawmakers to prevent the alleged plan.
It followed a statement on Tuesday by the Russian foreign intelligence service alleging that France and the UK were planning to covertly transfer nuclear weapons or components of a “dirty bomb” device.
British and French officials said the claim was a lie.
