ISLAMABAD: The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or the Pakistani Taliban, have announced a fresh offensive against Pakistan, the militant group said on Friday, amid an ongoing conflict between Islamabad and Kabul over a surge in militancy in Pakistan.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant violence in recent months and blames it on the TTP, or the Pakistani Taliban, which operates both inside Pakistan and from Afghan territory. Islamabad accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of providing safe havens for the TTP, which Kabul denies.

The neighbors have clashed along the frontier since last Thursday, when Afghanistan launched a border offensive in retaliation for Pakistani air strikes. Islamabad has hit back along the border and with fresh air strikes, bombing multiple sites including the former US air base at Bagram, the capital Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar.

“Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan announces the beginning of its annual military campaign titled ‘Operation Nasir’,” the group said, without sharing any operational details.

The Pakistani government did not immediately respond to the announcement, which has raised the spectre of more violence not just in Pakistan’s western regions bordering Afghanistan, but also of further intensity in clashes between the neighbors.

At least 42 civilians have been killed and 104 wounded since Feb. 26, when Kabul launched border offensive, the UN mission in Afghanistan reported this week.

Islamabad is yet to comment on civilian casualties and said its troops have killed more than 460 Afghan soldiers. Afghanistan estimated Pakistani fatalities among troops at around 150. Casualty claims from both sides are difficult to verify independently.

On Thursday, the UN refugee agency said more than 100,000 Afghans and thousands of Pakistanis have been forced from their homes by fighting along their shared border.

“The situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan remains tense amid active conflict along the border, with reports of internal displacement in both countries,” UNHCR said, warning that “an estimated 115,000 people in Afghanistan and around 3,000 people in Pakistan” have been displaced.