Defence minister says Pakistan in ‘open war’ with Afghanistan after new strikes

Pakistan’s defence minister has said his country had run out of “patience” and now considers itself in an “open war” with neighbouring Afghanistan.

The remarks came after both sides launched strikes following what Islamabad described as an Afghan cross-border attack.

In a post on X, defence minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif said Pakistan had hoped for peace in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of Nato forces and expected the Taliban to focus on the welfare of the Afghan people and regional stability.

Instead, he alleged, the Taliban had turned Afghanistan “into a colony of India”, gathered militants from around the world and begun “exporting terrorism”.

“Our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us,” he said.

There has been no reaction from Afghan government officials to Mr Asif’s comments.

Pakistan has frequently accused neighbouring India of backing the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army and the Pakistani Taliban, allegations New Delhi denies.

Mr Asif’s remarks came hours after Pakistan carried out air strikes in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, as well as in Kandahar in the south and the province of Paktia in the south-east, according to Pakistani officials and Afghanistan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid.

Pakistan said the strikes were in retaliation for Afghan cross-border attacks.

The escalation comes months after Qatar and Turkey mediated a ceasefire between the two sides.

Both governments have issued sharply differing casualty claims and said they inflicted heavy losses on the other. The claims could not be independently verified.

Afghanistan’s Defence Ministry said overnight that 55 Pakistani soldiers had been killed, including some whose bodies were taken into Afghanistan, and that “several others were captured alive”.

It said eight Afghan soldiers were killed and 11 wounded. The ministry said it destroyed 19 Pakistani army posts and two bases and that the fighting ended around midnight, about four hours after it began on Thursday.

Pakistan’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said two Pakistani soldiers were killed and three wounded.

Mosharraf Ali Zaidi, a spokesperson for Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, denied that any Pakistani soldiers had been captured.

In a post on X, he said at least 133 Afghan fighters were killed and more than 200 wounded. He also said 27 Afghan posts were destroyed and nine fighters captured.

He did not specify where the casualties occurred but said additional losses were estimated in strikes on military targets in Kabul, Paktia and Kandahar.

In Islamabad, two senior security officials said Afghan forces at some border posts had raised white flags, a gesture typically interpreted as a request to halt firing. The officials said Pakistani forces were continuing what they described as a strong retaliatory response to “unprovoked aggression” by the Afghan Taliban and had destroyed several key Taliban posts along the border.

Mr Asif also accused the Taliban government of denying Afghans basic human rights, including rights for women that he said are guaranteed under Islam, without providing details or evidence.

He said Pakistan had tried to maintain stability both directly and through friendly countries.

“Today, when attempts were made to target Pakistan with aggression, by the grace of God, our armed forces are giving a decisive response,” he said.

Pakistan launched a sweeping crackdown in October 2023 to expel migrants without documents, urging those in the country to leave of their own accord to avoid arrest and forcible deportation and forcibly expelling others. Iran also began a crackdown on migrants at around the same time.

Since then, millions have streamed across the border into Afghanistan, including people who were born in Pakistan decades ago and had built lives and created businesses there.

Last year alone, 2.9 million people returned to Afghanistan, the UN refugee agency has said, with nearly 80,000 having returned so far this year.