Pakistan declares ‘open war’ on Afghanistan after clashes

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan bombed major cities in Afghanistan, including capital Kabul on Friday, with Islamabad’s defence minister declaring the neighbours at “open war” following months of tit-for-tat clashes.

Pakistan claimed to have killed more than 270 Taliban fighters and injured over 400 others in airstrikes while Afghanistan’s Taliban govt spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said its forces killed 55 Pakistani soldiers and targeted what he described as “important military objectives” inside Pakistan.

Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Asif said Taliban had “turned Afghanistan into a colony of India” instead of focusing on development and regional stability. “They gathered all the terrorists of the world in Afghanistan and began exporting terrorism,” he alleged, without providing any evidence in support of his claim.

Patience has run out, now it’ll be ‘dama dam mast qalandar’: Pak min
Pakistan’s defence minister KhawajaAsif said Pakistan made every effort to keep the situation normal through direct means and through friendly countries, and it also engaged in full-fledged diplomacy, but the “Taliban became a proxy for India”. The Afghan Taliban attacked several check posts along the border late Thursday, apparently to avenge the air strikes carried out by Pakistan in Afghanistan’s border areas on Sunday. Pakistan responded by hitting targets in Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia under ‘Operation Ghazab lil Haq’ early Friday. The 2,611kmlong border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is known as the Durand Line, which Kabul has not formally recognised.

“Our patience has run out. Now there is an open war between us...Now it will be ‘Dama Dam Mast Qalandar’. Pakistan’s army did not come from across the seas. We are your neighbours; we know your ins and outs,” Asif said in a post on X. ‘Dama Dam Mast Qalandar’ refers to a spiritual song associated with the Sindhi sufi saint Lal Shehbaz Qalandar. The phrase literally means ‘every breath is ecstasy of Qalandar’, but in common parlance, it refers to acting impulsively without considering the consequences.

Taliban govt spokesman Mujahid said the recent strikes were intended to send a clear message that “our hand can reach their collar”, adding that any “malicious act” by Pakistan would be answered “in Islamabad”. Mujahid said during last night’s retaliatory operations, 19 Pakistani military posts and two headquarters were seized. He claimed that 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed and several others captured, Tolo News reported. “Afghan forces recovered weapons, ammunition, one tank and a military transport vehicle. 13 Islamic Emirate soldiers were killed and 22 others wounded in the fighting,” he said.