The local officials of Afghanistan’s Khost and Kunar provinces confirmed that the Pakistani aircraft launched the airstrikes on different parts of the provinces, killing five children and a woman. Officials of the Khost province said that the Pakistani aircraft bombed the Pesa Mila, and Mir Safar areas of the province on Friday night, Khaama Press reported.
While, the local residents of the province said that the airstrikes were conducted in the Spera district of Khost province, killing 33 members of two families. Meanwhile, the local residents of Shaltan district of Kunar province said that five children and a woman were killed in the airstrike conducted by Pakistan. Upon this, Pakistan government nor the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan has commented on the bombing but the Pakistani media said that the bombings have targeted the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Pashtun Islamist militant groups in those provinces, as per reported by Khaama Press.
TTP, a conglomerate of ethnic Pashtun Islamist militant groups, operates from Pakistan’s north-western tribal area of North Waziristan and has been fighting the Pakistani state in various forms since 2007. While the local residents in Afghanistan Nimroz province said that the Pakistani forces have opened fire at Afghan drivers killing at least one, reported Khaama Press.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Ministry of the Foreign Affairs has summoned the Afghan charge d’affaires in Islamabad to lodge a protest over the cross-border attack on Thursday, reported local media. Expressing serious reservations over the rise in provocations from the Afghan border security forces, the Foreign Office (FO) in a statement said that Pakistan strongly condemned such cross-border firing incidents and demanded strict action against those responsible. Pakistan also demanded from the Afghan charge d’affaires to ask the Kabul administration for enhancing the security measures in the border areas and make bilateral contacts more effective to avoid such incidents.