Pakistan launches cross-border strikes after deadly suicide attacks kill soldiers

Pakistan said early February 22 it carried out cross-border strikes targeting militant hideouts along its frontier with Afghanistan, following a string of deadly suicide attacks that killed security personnel and civilians in recent days.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the military conducted “intelligence-based, selective operations” against seven camps belonging to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its affiliates. An affiliate of the Islamic State was also targeted in the border region, he added.

Islamabad did not specify the exact locations of the strikes. There was no immediate response from Kabul, though social media reports suggested the operations were carried out inside Afghan territory.

The strikes come amid a sharp escalation in violence. In Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a security post, triggering a massive blast that collapsed part of the compound. Eleven soldiers and a child were killed. Authorities later said the attacker was an Afghan national.

Hours before the latest strikes, another suicide bomber targeted a security convoy in nearby Bannu district, killing two soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel.

Following February 21 attacks, Pakistan’s military warned it would not “exercise any restraint” and vowed to pursue those responsible “irrespective of their location” — a statement widely interpreted as a signal of possible cross-border action.

Tarar said Pakistan possessed “conclusive evidence” that recent attacks — including a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in Islamabad earlier this month that killed 31 worshippers — were orchestrated by militants acting on the “behest of their Afghanistan-based leadership and handlers.”

He accused Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers of failing to take verifiable action against groups using Afghan soil to launch attacks on Pakistan. Islamabad has repeatedly urged Kabul to honor commitments under the Doha agreement to prevent its territory from being used against other nations.

Pakistan has witnessed a resurgence of militant violence in recent years, much of it attributed to the TTP and banned Baloch separatist outfits. The TTP, while separate from Afghanistan’s Taliban, is closely allied with them. Both the group and Kabul deny Islamabad’s claims that the TTP operates from Afghan territory.

Relations between the two neighbors have remained strained since October, when deadly border clashes killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. Though a Qatar-mediated ceasefire has largely held, talks in Istanbul failed to yield a formal agreement, leaving ties fragile and the frontier volatile.