Pakistan airstrikes kill 572 Afghan Taliban, injure over 755 in ‘Operation Ghazb lil Haq’: Tarar

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Friday that 527 Afghan Taliban were killed and more than 755 injured during Operation Ghazab Lil Haq, launched in response to “unprovoked action” from across the Afghan border.

“Operation Ghazab Lil Haq” was launched on Thursday evening after renewed clashes along the Pakistan-Afghan border, when Afghan Taliban forces fired on several locations, provoking rapid military retaliation. The neighbors have been clashing along the border since last week, when Afghanistan launched a border offensive in response to Pakistani airstrikes.

Islamabad said the February airstrikes that triggered the escalation targeted terrorists. Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of not taking action against terrorist groups carrying out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban government rejects. Border fighting has affected several Afghan provinces. The violence in recent days is the worst since October fighting that killed more than 70 people on both sides, with land borders between the neighbors largely closed since then.

Taking stock of the losses of the Afghan Taliban regime as of 4 p.m. today, the Information Minister said 237 checkpoints had been destroyed and 38 others captured by Pakistani security forces.

“Two hundred and five tanks, armored vehicles and artillery pieces were also destroyed during the operation,” he said.

The minister added that 62 sites across Afghanistan were effectively targeted by airstrikes.

Meanwhile, state-run Radio Pakistan indicated that ground and air operations of the Pakistani armed forces were indeed underway against the Afghan Taliban and Fitna-al-Khwarij.

According to security sources, the Pakistan Army destroyed several posts with heavy artillery fire in the Kurram sector along the Pak-Afghan border in a successful operation against the Afghan Taliban.

Learn more: “No stop at Ghazab Lil Haq without guarantees”

The army also destroyed terrorist hideouts adjacent to Zhob and Qila Saifullah areas.

“According to security sources, the Afghan Taliban were forced to flee their posts during the effective operation carried out by the Pakistani army,” the report said.

Speaking to journalists from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in Rawalpindi a day ago, security officials asserted that Pakistan had no problem with Afghanistan or its people, but noted that the Afghan Taliban regime had become a “proxy master” facilitating several terrorist groups, posing a threat to regional peace and stability.

They said Afghan Taliban leaders would have to choose between maintaining relations with Pakistan or continuing to support terrorist groups.

They described Operation Ghazab Lil Haq as a continuation of Pakistan’s broader war against terrorism, adding that it would continue until there were credible assurances and practical steps from the Afghan Taliban regime to end the patronage of terrorists.

The latest escalation in tensions between the two countries follows a series of retaliatory actions over the past year.

Pakistan had earlier carried out airstrikes against camps of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Islamic State’s Khorasan province in Afghanistan after a wave of attacks in Pakistan, including a suicide bombing in Islamabad.

Pakistani security sources said more than 80 terrorists were killed in the strikes. The strikes provoked attacks from Afghanistan along the border, leading to the outbreak of the latest round of open conflict.

Islamabad has long maintained that TTP leaders operate from Afghan territory, an allegation that Kabul has repeatedly denied.

Tensions also increased after a series of explosions in Kabul on October 9 last year. Taliban forces then targeted areas along the Pakistani border, prompting Islamabad to respond with cross-border bombings. The exchanges caused casualties and damage to infrastructure on both sides and led to the suspension of trade after the closure of border crossings on October 12, 2025.