Pakistani overnight airstrikes targeted civilian areas in Afghanistan’s Khost province, killing at least 10 people—including nine children—according to Taliban officials.
The strikes, part of a broader pattern of retaliatory actions amid accusations of militant safe havens, have drawn fierce condemnation from Kabul and further strained already fragile relations between the neighbors.
Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid reported the deaths in a post on X (formerly Twitter), describing the attack as a “barbaric violation of Afghan sovereignty.”
He detailed that “Pakistani invading forces bombed the house of a local civilian resident… As a result, nine children (five boys and four girls) and one woman were martyred” in southeastern Khost province, a hotspot for cross-border skirmishes.
Additional airstrikes in the border regions of Kunar and Paktika wounded four more civilians, Mujahid added.
Pakistan has not officially commented on Tuesday’s operation, but sources in Islamabad have repeatedly justified such actions as “intelligence-based” targeting of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) hideouts.
Just hours before the airstrikes, a suicide attack on Monday targeted the headquarters of Pakistan’s Federal Constabulary (FC)—a key paramilitary force guarding the Afghan border—in Peshawar, the capital of restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The assault killed three FC personnel and wounded at least five others, including civilians, in a strike that authorities described as a near-massacre thwarted by a quick security response.
Peshawar police chief Mian Saeed said: At approximately 8:10 a.m. local time (3:10 a.m. GMT)—moments before rush hour—one assailant detonated explosives at the gate, killing the three FC guards on duty. Two other attackers, armed and attempting to storm the compound, were shot dead by security forces before reaching the morning parade ground, where dozens of personnel were assembled.
“Their timely action prevented a much larger tragedy,” Saeed said, crediting the FC’s vigilance.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack in a statement, vowing to “identify the perpetrators as soon as possible and bring them to justice.” He praised the security forces’ “timely action” and declared, “We will thwart the evil designs of terrorists who attack Pakistan’s integrity.”
State broadcaster PTV claimed that the assailants were identified as Afghan nationals, fueling Islamabad’s narrative of cross-border terrorism.
No group has claimed responsibility, but the modus operandi mirrors TTP tactics, which have surged since the Taliban’s 2021 return to power in Kabul.
This marks the second high-profile bombing in Pakistan in two weeks: On November 11, a suicide bomber killed 12 outside a court in Islamabad.
The twin incidents underscore a vicious cycle of violence along the 2,640-kilometer Durand Line—the disputed colonial-era border neither side fully recognizes. Pakistan accuses the Taliban of sheltering TTP fighters, who have killed over 685 security personnel in 2025, the deadliest year since 2014.
Afghanistan Seeks New Trade Routes
Afghanistan is scrambling to diversify its trade partners amid mounting tensions with Pakistan.
The neighbors have been locked in an increasingly bitter dispute since the Taliban took over Kabul in 2021, with Islamabad accusing Afghanistan of harbouring the militants behind cross-border attacks — charges the Taliban denies.
Abdul Ghani Baradar, Afghanistan’s deputy prime minister for economic affairs, urged traders to “redirect their trade toward other alternative routes instead of Pakistan”.
Pakistan is Afghanistan’s top trading partner, supplying rice, pharmaceuticals, and raw materials, while taking in 45 percent of Afghan exports in 2024, according to the World Bank. More than 70 percent of those exports, worth $1.4 billion, are perishable farm goods such as figs, pistachios, grapes, and pomegranates.
Dozens of Afghan trucks were stranded with rotting produce when the frontier shut on October 12 due to deadly cross-border fire, which was followed by a fragile truce.
Losses have topped $100 million on both sides, and up to 25,000 border workers have been affected, according to the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PAJCCI), which seeks to promote bilateral trade.
Trade with Iran and Turkmenistan has jumped 60–70 percent since mid-October, said Mohammad Yousuf Amin, head of the Chamber of Commerce in Herat, in western Afghanistan.
Kabul also sent apples and pomegranates to Russia for the first time last month. Russia is the only country to have officially recognised the Taliban administration.
Taliban leaders crave wider recognition and foreign investment, but sanctions on senior figures have made investors wary.
The vast Indian market is a prime attraction. On Sunday, state-owned Ariana Afghan Airlines cut freight rates to the country of 1.4 billion people. Two days later, Kabul sent its commerce and industry minister to New Delhi.
Afghanistan relies on Pakistan’s market of 240 million people and its sea access, while Islamabad wants Afghan transit to reach Central Asia for textile and energy trade. Pakistan says the closure curbs militant infiltration, but its economy is also feeling the pinch.
Earlier, the spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry said that Islamabad had reached its “threshold of patience” after recent attacks. “Either we get ourselves killed or we undertake a very risky trade… This is a difficult choice that we have made,” spokesman Tahir Hussain Andrabi told a weekly briefing.
Via AFP
