Pakistani Airstrikes in Afghanistan Kill Dozens of Civilians
Civilians gathered in the streets of Afghanistan’s Khost province to protest Pakistan’s airstrikes along the border on April 16, 2022. Photo: AFP
Military airstrikes carried out by Pakistan in the northeastern Afghan province of Khost– which borders Pakistan– killed and wounded dozens of Afghans on Saturday, April 16. Following the attacks, hundreds of Afghans took to the streets to protest the violence and condemn Pakistan’s actions by chanting anti-Pakistan slogans.
Border tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan increased after the Taliban seized power last August following the withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan. "In the last few days, incidents along Pak-Afghan border have significantly increased, wherein, Pakistani security forces are being targeted from across the border," claimed the Pakistan Foreign Office in an official statement made on Sunday. The Foreign Office claimed that seven Pakistani soldiers were killed near the border on Thursday and that Islamabad had repeatedly asked for the violence to come to a halt but the requests have been to no avail.
On Sunday, the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan also urged the Taliban to take “stern actions” against militants in Afghanistan who are launching attacks on Pakistan. “Terrorists are using Afghan soil with impunity to carry out activities inside Pakistan.” Faced with these accusations, the Taliban maintained that Afghanistan is not harboring Pakistani terrorists.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have a complicated history, with the United States largely being at the center of it. For the past two decades, Pakistan and the United States have maintained a relationship that was focused on the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, with Pakistan supporting the United States in its war on terrorism in the region. Washington’s long-standing cooperation with Pakistan was defined by the U.S.’s needs in Afghanistan, which often resulted in Washington overlooking Pakistan’s harboring of militants. In 2021, however, with the United States finally leaving Afghanistan to its own devices, the relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as Pakistan and the U.S. shifted.
In his speech to the U.N. General Assembly in 2021, Pakistan’s Ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan formally recognized the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, stating “we must strengthen and stabilize the current government, for the sake of the people of Afghanistan.” Khan’s formal acknowledgment of the Taliban’s rule went against the interests of the United States, which had wished for Pakistan to reject the Taliban’s government.
The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan had left Pakistan and the United States in limbo. According to Madiha Afzal, a fellow in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings, there remained “little to no appetite in Washington to engage with Pakistan on other matters going ahead if Afghanistan was embroiled in violence or in Taliban hands.” Afzal argued that the scope for cooperation between the two nations had significantly narrowed given the elimination of Afghanistan as a factor in their diplomatic relationship. Washington was left with little incentive to broaden or deepen its ties with Pakistan, and instead, the U.S.’s attention was shifted to Pakistan’s relationships with India and China.
Following the deadly airstrikes in Khost, the Taliban strongly reprimanded Pakistan in an official statement that said “This is a cruelty and it is paving the way for enmity between Afghanistan and Pakistan … We are using all options to prevent repetitions (of such attacks) and calling for our sovereignty to be respected.” Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson for the government, further stated that “The Pakistani side should know that if a war starts it will not be in the interest of any side. It will cause instability in the region.” The Taliban Foreign Ministry also called upon Pakistan’s ambassador in Kabul, Mansoor Ahmad Khan, to condemn the attacks.
Civilians gathered in the streets of Afghanistan’s Khost province to protest Pakistan’s airstrikes along the border on April 16, 2022. Photo: AFP
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) acknowledged the incident, tweeting "UNAMA is deeply concerned by reports of civilian casualties, including women and children, as a result of airstrikes in Khost & Kunar provinces," and said it was currently working to acquire all the facts and statistics regarding the attack.