Over 80 terrorists killed as armed forces strike 7 camps along Pakistan-Afghanistan border

Pakistani airstrikes on Afghanistan killed “more than 80 terrorists,” security sources said on Sunday, in a retaliatory operation against groups responsible for recent suicide bombings in Pakistan.

Pakistan struck seven “terrorist camps and hideouts belonging to Pakistani Taliban of [Fitna al Khwarij] and its affiliates and [the Islamic State-Khorasan Province] at the border region of Pakistan-Afghanistan border,” the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting announced in a post early Sunday on the social media platform X.

Fitna al Khawarij is a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Security sources said late Sunday evening that, “Last night, Pakistan’s intelligence-based airstrikes destroyed seven centres of Fitna al-Khawarij TTP in three provinces of Nangarhar, Paktika and Khost, in which more than eighty Khawarij have been confirmed killed, while more are expected.”

They added that the centres targeted included “New Centre No. 1 and New Centre No. 2 in Nangarhar, Khwariji Maulvi Abbas Centre in Khost, Khwariji Islam Centre, Khwariji Ibrahim Centre in Nangarhar, and Khwariji Mullah Rahbar and Khwariji Mukhlis Yar in Paktika.”

“Pakistan has conclusive evidence that these acts of terrorism were perpetrated by Khwarij on the behest of their Afghanistan-based leadership and handlers. Responsibilities for these attacks were also claimed by Afghanistan-based Pakistani Taliban belonging to Fitna al Khwarij (FAK) and their affiliates, and Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP),” the ministry said.

“Despite repeated efforts by Pakistan to urge the Afghan Taliban Regime to take verifiable measures to deny use of Afghan territory by terrorist groups and foreign proxies to carry out terrorist activities in Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban Regime failed to undertake any substantive action against them,” the ministry noted.

“Pakistan expects and reiterates [that the] Interim Afghan Government […] fulfil its obligations and deny use of its soil by Khwarij and terrorists against Pakistan, as the safety and security of people of Pakistan comes first and foremost. Pakistan also expects the international community to play a positive and constructive role by urging the Taliban regime to stand by its commitments as part of [the] Doha Agreement to deny use of its soil against other countries; an act vital for regional and global peace and security.”

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, in a post on X, stated that the strikes by the “Pakistan Air Force were retribution for the innocent lives lost to terrorism”.

He maintained that the strikes were an “answer to the tears of every mother who has sacrificed her son for the homeland”.

Chaudhry issued a stern warning, stating that while “Pakistan desired peace, it would not make compromises on its safety, land, and people”.

“Whoever looks at us with evil intent, we will destroy them, and no one will be spared,” the minister said.