Pakistan kills 29 militants in border operation, Kabul protests strikes

Islamabad,UPDATED: Jun 29, 2026 17:00 IST

Pakistan said on Monday that its security forces killed 29 militants in a ground operation near the Afghan border and in follow-up strikes across the border, as Islamabad and Kabul summoned each other’s charge d’affaires over the latest escalation.

Islamabad said the action followed recent militant attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and on the Pakistan Rangers headquarters in Karachi. Kabul, however, protested what it alleged were Pakistani air strikes on civilian homes in Kunar, Paktia and Paktika provinces, and said the attacks violated its airspace and sovereignty.

Information Minister Atta Tarar said security forces carried out an intelligence-based ground operation against a group of militants near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on June 28. He said four militants were killed in the Bajaur operation. This was followed by precision strikes during the night of June 28-29 under Operation Ghazab lil-Haq, targeting what Pakistan described as militant camps and hideouts in Afghanistan’s Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces.

According to Tarar, the strikes destroyed three targets in the three provinces, killed 25 militants and destroyed weapons and ammunition stored there. “A well-planned intelligence-based ground operation was carried out by security forces along the Pakistan-Afghan border, followed by calibrated strikes in the border region against the hideouts and safe havens of terrorists belonging to Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fitna-al-Khwarij, killing twenty-nine Khwarij,” Tarar said.

Fitna-al-Khwarij is the term officially used by Pakistan to refer to the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and allied militant groups. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar is affiliated with the TTP.

Pakistan on Sunday summoned Afghanistan’s charge d’affaires Sardar Ahmed Khan Shakeeb and issued a formal diplomatic protest over the attack on the Pakistan Rangers headquarters in Karachi earlier this week. “The Afghan charge d’affaires was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last night, and a strong demarche was issued regarding the Karachi terrorist attack,” Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said on Monday. “A similar demarche was conveyed by Pakistan’s Ambassador Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani to the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” he added.

Andrabi alleged that Afghan nationals, including one suspect arrested alive after the Karachi attack, had taken part in the assault, and said this showed that Afghan territory and nationals continued to be used to facilitate attacks inside Pakistan. Earlier this week, the Pakistan Army said three soldiers were killed when militants attacked the Rangers headquarters in Karachi. It said security forces killed three attackers in retaliatory fire, while another attacker was injured and arrested. Banned Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for that attack.

According to security sources, the injured suspect told investigators that he was an Afghan national and that the attack had been planned in Afghanistan with the help of a militant based in Bajaur. Islamabad has said it launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq on February 26 in response to alleged attacks by Afghan Taliban forces at 53 locations along the 2,600-km border, and that the current strikes are part of the broader anti-terror operation.

In Kabul, the Afghan foreign ministry said in a series of posts on X that it had summoned the Pakistani charge d’affaires to lodge a “strong and resolute protest” over what it described as Pakistan’s violation of Afghanistan’s airspace and the bombing of civilian homes in Kunar, Paktia and Paktika provinces. The ministry alleged that Pakistani air strikes on residential areas killed 36 civilians, including women and children, and injured 163 others. It said the strikes violated international law, humanitarian principles and Afghanistan’s sovereignty.

The ministry also rejected Pakistan’s allegations linking Afghanistan to recent militant attacks and accused Islamabad of trying to shift blame for its internal security challenges onto Afghanistan. It said such actions undermined trust between the two neighbours and harmed regional peace and stability. Pakistan has not immediately responded to the Afghan allegations.

The latest exchange comes amid a rise in militant attacks in Pakistan in recent years, with police and security forces among the targets. Pakistan has repeatedly accused the Taliban administration in Kabul of supporting terrorists involved in cross-border attacks, while both sides have now formally protested against each other over the latest violence.

With PTI Inputs

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