Critics hailed the strike as a rare moment of resolve, framing it as proof that Pakistan may finally be crippling the TTP’s long-standing terror networks
MM Report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has stepped up its campaign against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) with a series of cross-border airstrikes in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province killing as many as 50 TTP terrorists including a senior commander, in what observers have seen as one of the most significant escalations against terrorists.
The strikes, launched on Monday evening at around 7pm local time, targeted suspected terrorist hideouts in the Shinwar and Achin districts, areas long viewed as sanctuaries for insurgent groups operating across the porous border. Unverified reports suggested as many as 50 fighters, including senior TTP commanders, were killed.
Report said plumes of fire and explosions lighting up the rugged mountainside. While some critics praised the attack as evidence of a decisive response against consistent TTP terrorism, suggesting the report might reduced TTP’s capabilities of carrying out attacks on Pakistani soil. The assault came only hours after a deadly suicide bombing in Quetta that killed both civilians and security personnel, intensifying pressure on the military to act.
Islamabad has long accused the Afghan Taliban of harboring TTP terrorists on their soil, an allegation repeatedly denied by Kabul. The Afghan government has in turn accused Pakistan of violating its sovereignty through such strikes. Reaction was swift and polarized. Many Pakistanis hailed the raids as overdue retaliation against a group responsible for some of the country’s deadliest attacks.
The incident has further unsettled an already fragile relationship between the two neighbors, whose ties have frayed since the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul. Cross-border clashes, tit-for-tat accusations and the constant specter of terrorist violence have kept the frontier volatile. For families living along the Durand Line, the cycle of strikes and reprisals has become a grim and familiar backdrop to daily life.
Neither Islamabad nor Kabul has issued an official statement on the strikes, and international organizations including the UN have so far remained silent. Without independent verification, the scale of the damage and the identities of those killed remain unclear.
