KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Pakistan has accused India of supporting militant groups operating from Afghan territory, following New Delhi’s condemnation of recent Pakistani air strikes inside Afghanistan.
In a statement released on Sunday, Tahir Andrabi, spokesperson for Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, described India’s reaction to the air strikes as “absurd, unwarranted and shamefully hypocritical.”
Andrabi said that India has been actively supporting militant groups operating from Afghanistan.
“India’s active support and sponsorship of terrorist groups operating from Afghan soil, including Fitna- al -Khawarij and Fitna -al-Hindustan, are well known,” he said.
He added that India’s anger over what Pakistan described as the destruction of terrorist networks in Afghanistan was therefore understandable.
Pakistan uses the term Fitna al-Khawarij to refer to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), while Fitna al-Hindustan refers to Baloch insurgent groups, particularly the Baloch Liberation Movement.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs on Saturday condemned Pakistan’s air strikes in Afghanistan, saying the attacks had resulted in civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure.
Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, described the strikes as “ yet another act of aggression by a Pakistani establishment that remains hostile to the idea of a sovereign Afghanistan.”
According to the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan stated that, Pakistan carried out air strikes late on Thursday night targeting locations in four provinces: Kabul, Kandahar, Paktia and Paktika.
Taliban officials said that in Kabul a residential house was hit, killing four civilians and injuring 14 others.
They also said that in Kandahar an oil storage facility belonging to the private Afghan airline Kam Air was struck.
Pakistan, however, has said that the targets were “terrorist facilities” in Afghanistan and claimed that the oil depot belonged to the Taliban.
Meanwhile, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that Pakistan carried out another round of strikes in Kandahar on Saturday night.
According to Mujahid, the targets included a rehabilitation hospital for drug addicts and an “empty container” that had previously been used as a military guard post.
He said the attack did not cause any casualties but resulted in material damage.
Pakistani authorities have not yet commented on the latest strikes.
Some media outlets had reported that Pakistan had bombed several Taliban military sites, including a base belonging to the special protection unit responsible for guarding the Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Taliban officials, however, have not confirmed those reports.
The rise in violence has strained relations between Pakistan and the Taliban authorities in Kabul. For years, Pakistan maintained close ties with the Afghan Taliban and hosted many of the movement’s leaders and fighters during the two decades of war against the Western-backed Afghan government that preceded the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.
In recent months, however, relations have deteriorated sharply, with both sides exchanging accusations and military actions along the border. Pakistan has carried out several airstrikes in border areas and, in some cases, deeper inside Afghanistan.
