Days after Pakistani planes conducted aerial bombardment inside Afghanistan, Afghanistan’s defense ministry said on Saturday that Afghan Taliban forces had targeted “several points” in neighboring Pakistan.
The Defense Ministry statement said the strikes were carried out “beyond the ‘hypothetical line”—a term Afghan authorities use to refer to a border with Pakistan that they have long disputed—but it did not name Pakistan.
“Retaliation from the southeast of the country was aimed at several points beyond the hypothetical line that were used as hubs and hiding places by bad people and their supporters who planned and carried out attacks in Afghanistan,” the ministry said.
In response to a question about whether the statement was about Pakistan, ministry spokesperson Enayatullah Khowarazmi stated, “We do not consider it to be the territory of Pakistan; therefore, we cannot confirm the territory, but it was on the other side of the hypothetical line.”
The Durand Line, which was drawn by British colonial authorities in the 19th century through the mountainous and frequently lawless tribal belt between what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been rejected by Afghanistan for decades.
There were no specifics about the areas targeted or the number of casualties. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Pakistani military’s public relations arm did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Afghan officials said the Pakistani bombardment killed civilians and threatened to retaliate on Wednesday. Islamabad claimed to have targeted bordering Islamist militants’ hiding places.
Relations between the neighbors are tense; Pakistan claims that multiple militant attacks in its territory were carried out from Afghan territory, a claim the Afghan Taliban disputes.
