Pakistani security forces conducted a cross-border ground operation and a series of airstrikes inside Afghanistan overnight Sunday, killing at least 36 civilians and wounding more than 160 others, according to Afghan officials — the sharpest escalation in a months-long cycle of tit-for-tat military action between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. Pakistan insists it targeted militant hideouts and killed 29 fighters. The strikes have prompted both countries to summon each other’s senior diplomats and raised fresh fears of a broader regional conflagration along one of the world’s most dangerous borders.
What Happened
Pakistani forces’ ground operations and strikes killed at least 36 civilians in Afghanistan overnight and wounded more than 160 others, Afghan officials said Monday, as tensions between the neighbours escalated. One Afghan official said the attacks would be met with retaliation. Pakistan said the operations were launched in response to militant attacks across Pakistan. Security forces carried out a ground operation along the border late Sunday, followed by strikes against militant hideouts and safe havens, killing 29 fighters, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said.
The Pakistani security operation followed a militant attack targeting the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in Karachi that killed three soldiers. Security forces killed three attackers and arrested another assailant, whom the military identified as a wounded Afghan national. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack.
Pakistani security forces carried out a ground operation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border late Sunday, followed by strikes against militant hideouts and safe havens. Tarar said Pakistan had targeted the hideouts of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fitna al-Khwarij in Afghanistan’s Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces. Tarar said the overnight strikes killed “terrorists” and destroyed weapons and ammunition stockpiles.
The Human Toll — Two Very Different Accounts
The two sides present incompatible versions of what was struck and who was killed.
Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Taliban government, said Pakistani forces targeted a home in Paktia’s Chamkani district, killing an elderly man and a child, while other family members were wounded. When residents gathered to rescue people, the area was struck again, killing 28 villagers and wounding 158. Six people, mostly women and children, were killed in a village in Giyan district, Paktika province, when another home was struck. A civilian home in Kunar province was also hit, causing no casualties but killing around 30 livestock.
An eyewitness in Mandokhail, Qayum Khan, told CBS News that the house struck in the village belonged to a local family, and was about 800 yards from his own home. He said that near midnight, the house was engulfed in flames after being hit. “We immediately ran toward the house to help, but then another bomb struck. Those who had reached the house first to rescue the injured were also caught in the Pakistan bombing,” Khan said.
Pakistan used the phrase “Khawarij” to refer to what it called Indian-backed Pakistani Taliban and other militants. India strongly denied any involvement, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal calling the statements “baseless allegations,” and saying Pakistan should “look inwards, take credible action against the terror infrastructure on its territory.”
Why This Escalation Is Different
Sunday’s cross-border strikes and ground operation came less than three weeks after Pakistan’s military had already launched a separate set of airstrikes on what it said were militant hideouts in Afghanistan. The escalation follows months of tit-for-tat military action. Hundreds of people have been killed in cross-border fighting since February, when Afghanistan launched retaliatory strikes after Pakistan carried out airstrikes inside Afghan territory.
The pattern of double-tap strikes — in which a second strike hits rescuers arriving at the site of an initial attack — has drawn particular condemnation from Afghan officials and human rights observers. If confirmed, it would represent a significant escalation in the level of force being applied, and would complicate any future diplomatic resolution.
The Diplomatic Fallout
On Monday, Afghanistan and Pakistan summoned each other’s top diplomats to protest the attacks. Zia Ahmad Takal, the Afghanistan Foreign Ministry’s deputy spokesperson, accused Islamabad of repeatedly blaming Afghanistan for security incidents inside Pakistan without “credible evidence.”
Chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the action, describing it as a “cowardly act of aggression.”
Pakistan’s framing of the strikes rested on the claim that Afghan soil is being used to plan and execute attacks against Pakistani civilians and security forces. Pakistan’s Information Minister stated that “Afghan soil and Afghan nationals continue to be used to orchestrate terrorist attacks inside Pakistan,” citing the captured wounded Afghan national from the Karachi attack as evidence.
The Deeper Context: A Border Without Stability
The Pakistan-Afghanistan border has been the site of recurring military conflict for years, but the pace and scale of operations in 2026 has intensified markedly. The Pakistani Taliban — known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP — is a distinct organisation from the Afghan Taliban that now governs Afghanistan, but the two are allied. The Afghan Taliban’s reluctance or inability to act against TTP sanctuaries on its territory has been a persistent source of friction with Islamabad.
Multiple rounds of talks have failed to secure a lasting ceasefire. China hosted the two sides in April and Beijing later said Pakistan and Afghanistan had agreed not to escalate their conflict and to explore a solution — an agreement that appeared to collapse entirely with Sunday’s strikes.
The situation is further complicated by Pakistan’s claims of Indian involvement, a charge that frames the cross-border militancy not merely as a bilateral problem but as part of a regional proxy conflict — a framing the Afghan Taliban and India both reject.
What Happens Next
Pakistani officials said an uneasy calm prevailed along the border on Monday, with security forces remaining on high alert. But with Afghanistan’s deputy spokesperson publicly threatening retaliation, the risk of further escalation is real.
Tarar said Pakistan’s counter-terrorism campaign “will continue at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country.” That language leaves little room for a de-escalatory off-ramp in the short term.
The international community has few effective levers. The United States, which once served as a key broker between Islamabad and Kabul, has significantly reduced its diplomatic footprint in the region since the 2021 withdrawal. China, which has the most active diplomatic relationship with both governments, has been left as the principal external actor trying to hold the situation together — a role Sunday’s strikes have made considerably more difficult.
