Bombing by Pakistani military aircraft in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province on Tuesday killed at least 46 people, most of whom were children and women, the Afghan Taliban government said, adding that the attack would be answered.
Six people were also injured in the bombing at four locations in Afghanistan, deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said on Wednesday.
Pakistani government and military authorities have not commented on the matter.
Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry said it had summoned the head of Pakistan’s mission in Kabul to deliver a formal note of protest to Islamabad over the bombing carried out by Pakistani military aircraft, warning the diplomat about the consequences of such actions.
“Afghanistan considers this brutal act to be a flagrant violation of all international principles and an obvious act of aggression,” Enayatullah Khowrazmi, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said in a statement. “The Islamic Emirate will not let this cowardly act go unanswered.”
A Pakistani official with knowledge of the matter, but who declined to be named, told Reuters that Pakistan had carried out airstrikes against a camp of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) Islamist militant group.
The TTP pledges allegiance and takes its name from the Afghan Taliban, but is not directly part of the group that governs Afghanistan. Its stated aim is to impose Islamic religious law in Pakistan, as the Taliban did in Afghanistan.
A major TTP attack in Pakistan’s South Waziristan area, which borders the location of the alleged targeted camp in Afghanistan, killed 16 Pakistani security personnel on Saturday.
Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense identified those killed in the Pakistan bombing as “mainly Waziristani refugees” – indicating they were from the territory of Pakistan’s Waziristan.
The neighbors have a tense relationship, with Pakistan saying that several TTP attacks that took place in its country were launched from Afghan soil – an accusation the Afghan Taliban denies.
The two countries’ relationship became complicated in March, when the Taliban accused Pakistan of carrying out two airstrikes on its territory, killing five women and children.
Pakistan said at the time that it had conducted “intelligence-based counter-terrorism operations” in Afghanistan, but did not specify the nature of the operations.
This content was originally published in Pakistani air strikes in Afghanistan kill 46, says Taliban on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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