Pakistan has carried out aerial and drone strikes at 10 locations in Afghanistan in response to drone incursions from Afghan territory a day earlier, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar confirmed on Thursday.
Tarar said that the targeted locations were being used to launch and store drones and described the strikes as a response to attempted attacks on Pakistan.
“In exercise of its sovereign right to self-defence, Pakistan conducted precision aerial and drone strikes against 10 locations in Afghanistan used for launching and storing these drones,” Tarar wrote on X.
He added that the strikes were “deliberate, precise, calibrated and proportionate and strictly limited to identified military objectives directly linked to the attempted attacks against Pakistan”.
The minister described Wednesday’s drone incursion as a “blatant violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”, calling it a “grave and unacceptable act of aggression”.
Tarar said that Pakistan had repeatedly raised concerns with the Afghan Taliban over what Islamabad describes as terrorist sanctuaries and groups operating from Afghan territory.
He claimed that the Afghan Taliban had chosen to escalate tensions through drone operations instead of acting against the networks Pakistan had raised concerns about.
According to Tarar, Pakistan’s air defence systems detected and tracked the drones that entered its airspace on Wednesday and “neutralised all intruding platforms before they could reach any of their intended targets, comprehensively thwarting the attempted attack”.
Security sources had earlier said that eight drones entered Pakistani airspace from Afghanistan, with four intercepted near the Torkham border and four others brought down near Kohat.
Tarar said that Pakistan will “neither accept nor tolerate” attacks from Afghan territory, whether carried out by terrorist groups or the Afghan Taliban.
He warned that any violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty will receive “an immediate and decisive response”.
The minister also called on the Afghan Taliban to stop what he described as “hostile activity” and take “effective, concrete, verifiable and sustained action” against terrorist entities operating from Afghan soil.
He said that Pakistan remained committed to “regional peace, dialogue and constructive engagement” and was not seeking escalation.
“This commitment must not be mistaken for weakness or an unlimited tolerance of hostile actions,” Tarar said.
The strikes came three days after Pakistan carried out airstrikes in the border region with Afghanistan against what the government described as terrorist hideouts and safe havens. The Information Ministry said that more than 28 terrorists were killed in those strikes.
The earlier strikes followed an attack on a police facility in Kohat, where 23 people were killed and a subsequent clearance operation resulted in the deaths of eight attackers, according to Pakistani authorities.
Tarar described Thursday’s strikes as part of Pakistan’s ongoing counterterrorism campaign Ghazab lil Haq.
Pakistan has carried out several strikes along the Afghan border in recent months following attacks inside the country and exchanges of fire along the border. Islamabad has repeatedly accused groups operating from Afghan territory of carrying out attacks in Pakistan, while the Afghan Taliban has rejected such accusations.
