Islamabad:
Pakistan ambassador to Kabul was summoned to the Afghan Foreign Ministry on Thursday to file an official protest against what the Taliban regime claimed were Pakistani military strikes in Nangarhar and the Khost provinces, in a move indicating renewed tensions between the two neighbors.
Afghan officials “firmly condemned” the strikes which, according to them, led to the murder of three civilians and injuries to seven other.
In his protest note, the Afghan Foreign Ministry denounced what he called the Pakistan violation of Afghan airspace and the attack on civil zones near the Durand line, describing strikes as “a blatant violation of the territorial integrity of Afghanistan and a provocative act”.
The ministry also stressed that the safeguarding of Afghanistan sovereignty remains a red line for “Islamic emirate”, warning that “such irresponsible actions will inevitably lead to consequences”.
There was no response from Pakistan when the envoy or strikes on the other side of the border on Wednesday evening.
Afghan Nangarhar officials said two drone strikes hit the house of a man in the Shinwar district in Nangarhar. The province’s sub-government, Maulvi Azizullah Mustafa, said that Afghanistan was engaged in peace and stability, good relations with neighboring countries and a neutral position in international affairs, and these actions will affect regional stability.
Development occurs in the middle of the renewed friction between Islamabad and Kabul on cross -border terrorism. Pakistan has long accused Afghan Taliban of having provided a sanctuary to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Taliban prohibited (TTP), which intensified the attacks within Pakistan after the return of the Taliban in Kabul.
Islamabad has carried out occasional cross -border strikes, insisting that they target terrorist hiding places across the porous border. However, Kabul systematically protested by these actions, which described them as violations of sovereignty.
The tensions between the two neighbors intensified earlier this year after Pakistan closed key border crossings following a peak of terrorist attacks, while Afghanistan retaliated with restrictions on trade and movement. The last episode highlights the fragile state of bilateral links despite the recent push of both parties to solve their problems.
There have been frequently high level exchanges between Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent months, but these contacts do not seem to have failed to seriously progress on the issue of security.
Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar recently went to Kabul to attend a trilateral meeting with Chinese and Afghan Foreign Ministers. During a bilateral meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Taliban, Amir Khan Muttaqi, Dar transmitted strong reserves of Pakistan on the lack of progress on TTP. He told his Afghan counterpart that the recent increase in terrorist attacks was linked to the TTP refuge and other groups on Afghan soil.
The Afghan Foreign Minister was supposed to go to Islamabad earlier this month, but the visit was canceled at the last minute after the United Nations Security Council was unable to give it travel exemptions on the United States objections.
The two parties worked to solve the problem and reprogrammed the visit, but given the last hiccup, it is not certain that Muttaqi will go to Pakistan anytime soon.
