Pakistan announced on Sunday February 22 that it had carried out air strikes against armed groups on the border with Afghanistan, where the authorities reported dozens of deaths and injuries, including children.
These bombings are the most significant since clashes which left dozens dead between the two neighbors in October. Pakistan justified them by “recent suicide attacks”including one in an Islamabad mosque in early February.
Pakistan Army “carried out selective intelligence-led strikes against seven terrorist camps and safehouses belonging to the Pakistani Taliban” (TTP), the Ministry of Information said in a statement.
It also targeted a group affiliated with the jihadist organization Islamic State (IS), adds the press release published on X by Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, without specifying where these strikes were carried out.
Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told X that Pakistan had “bombed [des] civilians in Nangarhar and Paktika provinces [est]leaving dozens of martyrs and wounded, including women and children.. “Pakistani generals are trying to compensate for their country’s security weaknesses with these crimes”he denounced.
In the district of Bihsud, in Nangarhar, a bulldozer was searching the rubble of buildings in search of victims, noted a journalist from Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Twelve children and teenagers were among 17 people killed in the assault on a house in this district, an Afghan security source who requested anonymity, not being authorized to speak to the media, told AFP.
Significant deterioration of relations
Long close, Pakistan and Afghanistan have clashed sporadically since the Taliban authorities took control of Kabul in 2021. Islamabad accuses its neighbor of harboring armed militants who launch attacks on its territory, which the Afghan government denies.
Relations have deteriorated significantly in recent months until they transformed in mid-October into an armed confrontation of an unprecedented scale.
According to Islamabad, the bombings announced Sunday morning were ordered following several recent attacks in the northwest as well as a suicide bombing that left 40 dead on February 6 during Friday prayers in a Shiite mosque in Islamabad.
This latest attack, claimed by IS, was the deadliest in Islamabad since a bomb attack on the Marriott hotel in 2008, which left 60 dead.
While Pakistan is a majority Sunni country, Shiites represent 10% to 15% of the population and have been targeted in the past.
Closed border
Islamabad assured Sunday that the Taliban authorities, despite its warnings, had not acted against armed groups operating from Afghan territory.
“Pakistan has always strived to preserve peace and stability in the region, but, at the same time, the safety and security of our citizens remains our top priority”said the government, calling on the international community to put pressure on Kabul.
Since mid-October, the land border between the two countries has been closed, with a few exceptions (Afghans returned from Pakistan), affecting trade and the lives of populations accustomed to passing from one side to the other.
“In the last three months of 2025, 70 civilians were killed and 478 injured in Afghanistan by actions attributed to Pakistani forces”according to a report from the United Nations mission in Afghanistan (Unama) published on February 8.
The most violent clashes between the two neighboring countries in October 2025 caused the deaths of 47 Afghan civilians, including nine on October 15 in Kabul.
“The number of civilian victims in cross-border clashes between October 1 and December 31, 2025 far exceeds the number recorded annually” since 2011, adds Unama.
