Pakistan Says 29 Militants Killed as Border Strikes Trigger Diplomatic Row With Afghanistan

Pakistan said on Monday that its security forces killed 29 militants in operations near the Afghan border, including a ground assault and subsequent cross-border strikes, as tensions with Kabul escalated into reciprocal diplomatic protests.

The military action followed a recent wave of militant attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and the assault on a Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) headquarters in Karachi.

Information Minister Atta Tarar said security forces carried out an intelligence-based ground operation in Bajaur district near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on June 28, killing four militants.

According to Tarar, the operation was followed overnight by targeted strikes under 'Operation Ghazab lil-Haq' on June 28–29 against what Pakistan described as militant camps and hideouts in Afghanistan’s Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces.

Pakistani authorities said three sites were struck and that 25 militants were killed, while weapons and ammunition depots were destroyed.

"A well-planned intelligence-based ground operation was carried out by security forces along the Pakistan-Afghan border, followed by calibrated strikes in the border region against the hideouts and safe havens of terrorists belonging to Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fitna-al-Khwarij, killing twenty-nine Khwarij," Tarar said.

Pakistan officially uses the term "Fitna-al-Khwarij" to describe the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and affiliated militant groups. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar is aligned with the TTP.

The military action came alongside a diplomatic exchange between Islamabad and Kabul.

Pakistan summoned Afghanistan’s charge d'affaires, Sardar Ahmed Khan Shakeeb, and issued a formal protest over the recent attack on the Pakistan Rangers headquarters in Karachi.

Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said: "The Afghan charge d'affaires was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last night, and a strong demarche was issued regarding the Karachi terrorist attack."

He added: "A similar demarche was conveyed by Pakistan's Ambassador Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani to the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

Andrabi alleged that Afghan nationals were involved in the Karachi attack and said the arrest of one suspect alive pointed to continued use of Afghan territory to facilitate attacks inside Pakistan.

Afghanistan responded with its own diplomatic protest.

In statements posted on X, Afghanistan’s foreign ministry said it summoned Pakistan’s charge d'affaires in Kabul to register a "strong and resolute protest" over what it described as Pakistani air strikes on civilian homes in Kunar, Paktia and Paktika and violations of Afghan airspace.

Kabul alleged that the strikes killed 36 civilians, including women and children, and injured 163 others. Afghan authorities described the attacks as violations of international law, humanitarian principles and Afghan sovereignty.

The Afghan foreign ministry also rejected Pakistan’s claims linking Afghanistan to recent militant attacks, accusing Islamabad of shifting responsibility for its internal security challenges and warning that such actions damage regional trust and stability.

Pakistan had not publicly responded to those allegations.

The exchange followed the Karachi Rangers attack earlier this week, in which Pakistan said three soldiers were killed. Security forces said they killed three attackers, while another was injured and taken into custody.

The banned Jamaat-ul-Ahrar later claimed responsibility.

According to Pakistani security sources, the arrested suspect told investigators he was an Afghan national and that the operation had been planned in Afghanistan with support from a militant based in Bajaur.

Islamabad has said Operation Ghazab lil-Haq was launched on February 26 in response to what it describes as attacks by Afghan Taliban forces across 53 points along the 2,600-km border.

The latest operation comes amid a broader rise in militant violence in Pakistan, where authorities have repeatedly accused the Taliban administration in Kabul of supporting cross-border attacks targeting security forces and police.

(with PTI inputs)