Islamabad government, ‘we can crush the enemy, the country is with the army’
(ANSA-AFP) – ISLAMABAD, FEBRUARY 27 – The Pakistani Defense Minister has declared “open war” on the Taliban government, after the clash between the two sides. “Our patience has reached its limit. Now it is open war between us and you,” wrote Khawaja Asif on “Our forces have full capacity to crush any aggressive ambition,” Sharif said, according to the Pakistani government’s X page. “The entire nation stands with the Pakistan Armed Forces,” he added.
Pakistan bombed major Afghan cities, including the capital Kabul. Pakistan’s latest operation came after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops last night, in response to earlier airstrikes by Islamabad. Relations between the neighbors have worsened in recent months, with land border crossings largely closed after bloody fighting in October that left more than 70 people dead on both sides.
Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to act against militant groups carrying out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban government denies. Most of the attacks were claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group that has stepped up attacks in Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021.
Several rounds of negotiations between Islamabad and Kabul followed an initial ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Türkiye, but the efforts failed to produce a lasting agreement. Both the Afghan and Pakistani armies said they had killed dozens of soldiers in the latest wave of border violence, which followed multiple attacks in Islamabad in Afghanistan and clashes along the border in recent months.
In the Afghan capital, AFP journalists heard jets and numerous explosions, followed by gunshots, for several hours. A reporter in the southern city of Kandahar, where Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is based, said he heard jets overhead. The streets of Kabul were quiet after dawn, in keeping with a Ramadan Friday in the Muslim-majority nation. Taliban authorities have not significantly increased the presence of security forces or checkpoints, AFP journalists across the city reported. (ANSA-AFP).
