Afghan diaspora in the United States, under the banner of “Free Afghanistan”, organized a protest in front of the White House against the Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan. Days after the April 16 airstrikes in Afghanistan by neighboring Pakistan, the protests were organized on Saturday. Airstrikes by the Pakistan military in the Khost and Kunar provinces of Afghanistan killed a number of civilians and escalated the already simmering tensions between the two countries. Speakers included prominent diaspora members Nisar Ahmad and Sharifullah Sharafat, a prominent Afghan social worker in DC.
They condemned Pakistan’s ‘direct invasion’ of Afghanistan in form of airstrikes in Khost and Kunar. They also condemned fomenting of Hazara Genocide by Pakistan and its mercenaries. Speakers appealed to US Administration and the world community to intervene at the earliest and stop supporting the ‘terrorist state’ of Pakistan. While sporadic cross-border shelling has killed Afghan civilians for years, the casualties due to the strikes mark a significant exacerbation in violence and the use of military force by Pakistani authorities as the strikes drew immediate criticism from Taliban officials, who said that Pakistani military aircraft carried out the airstrikes.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly condemns Pakistan’s attacks on refugees in Khost and Kunar. IEA calls on the Pakistani side not to test the patience of Afghans on such issues and not repeat the same mistake again otherwise it will have bad consequences,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement on Twitter. Mujahid added that the problems between the two countries should be resolved through political means.
According to a statement from Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Taliban also summoned Pakistan’s ambassador in Kabul to express their disapproval of the attacks and give him a diplomatic demarche to deliver to Islamabad. However, Pakistani officials have not yet confirmed the strikes and instead urged the Taliban to curb increasing cross-border attacks from Afghanistan on their security forces. “Pakistan has repeatedly requested Afghan Government in last few months to secure Pak-Afghan border region. Terrorists are using Afghan soil with impunity to carry out activities inside Pakistan,” the media outlet quoted Pakistan’s foreign office as saying in a statement earlier. Notably, since the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan last year, the country’s eastern border with Pakistan has been a source of increasing tension between the two countries as Pakistani officials have claimed frequent attacks in Pakistan by militants harbored on Afghan soil. However, Taliban officials have refuted such reports of sheltering militants.