Pakistan has launched Operation Ghazab Lil Haq against the Afghan Taliban regime after Kabul claimed its forces killed 55 Pakistani soldiers in cross-border strikes, sharply escalating tensions along the volatile Durand Line.
State broadcaster PTV News said the operation was initiated in response to what it called “unprovoked aggression” from Afghanistan. Later, Pakistan minister Attaullah Tarar said that 133 were killed and over 200 were injured in the strike.
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said the armed forces were delivering a “crushing response” to aggression from the Afghan Taliban. He urged the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with the federal authorities and other provinces in defending the country.
The escalation follows claims by the Taliban-led Afghan government that it had seized 19 Pakistani military outposts and captured a major headquarters at Anzar Sar in Khost province. Afghanistan’s Deputy Spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat wrote on X that “heavy retaliatory offensive operations” were launched along the so-called Durand Line by the 203 Mansouri Corps and the 201 Khalid bin Walid Corps.“To date, one headquarters and nineteen outposts have been captured,” he said, adding that “up to fifty-five Pakistani soldiers have been killed,” with 23 bodies recovered and others taken alive. He claimed dozens of weapons were seized and that operations were continuing across several eastern provinces, including Paktia, Paktika and Nangarhar, as well as at the Torkham Gate crossing.
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