ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will continue its military operations against Afghanistan until there is a change in the behavior of the Afghan Taliban government, the prime minister’s spokesperson said this week.
Pakistan has long accused the Taliban of harboring militant groups, particularly the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) of carrying out cross-border attacks, a charge Kabul denies. The latest violence has raised regional concerns, with countries including China urging both sides to de-escalate and resolve tensions through dialogue.
Tensions between the two countries rose further this week after Afghan authorities accused Pakistan of targeting a Kabul hospital via airstrikes Monday night, saying over 400 people were killed and 250 were injured. Islamabad denied the allegations, saying it had struck military installations in Kabul and Nangarhar.
“I’ve stated quite clearly that all military operations will continue till such time as there is a change in the behavior and the ground reality in Afghan Taliban regime-controlled territory,” Mosharraf Zaidi, the prime minister’s spokesperson for foreign media, told Reuters on Tuesday.
“We identify sites based on robust and rich intelligence that is verified, re-verified, counter-verified, and then verified again,” he added. “And then we strike terrorists and terrorist infrastructure.”
He reiterated that Pakistan had only been targeting militant infrastructure in Afghanistan for the past three weeks.
China’s foreign ministry had urged the two countries on Tuesday to “swiftly implement a ceasefire” and resolve their differences through dialogue, according to AFP.
Zaidi said whatever China has to say about the ongoing conflict, Pakistan will listen to it “carefully.”
“And whatever we have to say, we know that we’ll be heard fairly and warmly in Beijing,” he said.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have been engaged in the worst fighting between them in decades since last month. Clashes erupted after Afghan forces targeted Pakistani border posts on Feb. 26, which Kabul said was retaliation for earlier Pakistani strikes on alleged militant camps inside Afghanistan.
Relations between the neighboring countries continue to deteriorate along their roughly 2,600-km border, which has long been a flashpoint for militancy and cross-border raids.
Pakistan says its forces have killed more than 680 Afghan Taliban fighters since clashes began, whereas Kabul says dozens of Pakistani soldiers have also died in the fighting.
Neither side’s battlefield claims can be independently verified.
