ISLAMABAD (AP) – Pakistan issued a stern warning Sunday to Afghanistan’s hardline religious leaders to stop sheltering local Pakistani Taliban extremists who are carrying out increasingly deadly attacks on the country’s military.
The warning followed Afghan reports that Pakistani planes bombed the eastern Afghan provinces of Khost and Kunar late Friday, killing civilians.
Pakistan has so far declined to comment on Afghan allegations, instead accusing the Afghan Taliban of doing nothing to stop attacks on Pakistan by extremists in Afghanistan.
“Terrorists are using Afghanistan with impunity to carry out activities in Pakistan,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, which was unusually harsh in its language.
Pakistan has often been accused of harboring Afghan Taliban fighters before they came to power last August, when America ended its 20-year war. After their conquest, Islamabad led the way in the pressure of the world to engage with the religiously led Afghan government.
However, it is unclear whether Pakistan’s new prime minister, Shahbaz Sharif, will support the Afghan Taliban, like his predecessor, Imran Khan, a cricket star who became a conservative Islamist leader who was ousted last weekend in a political vote of no confidence.
On Saturday, the Taliban’s foreign ministry called on the Pakistani ambassador to complain about civilians killed in what they say were bombings late Friday that killed refugees in the eastern Afghan provinces of Kunar and Khost.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid warned Pakistan “not to test the patience of Afghans on such issues and not to repeat the same mistake, otherwise it will have bad consequences.” He did not give details of the consequences or the number of people killed.
Afghanistan’s largest news channel, TOLO News, showed photos of children who they say were killed in the airstrike. The same channel showed protests by hundreds of residents of the eastern province of Khost, condemning Pakistan and shouting anti-Pakistani slogans.
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Pakistan has not confirmed any attack on Afghanistan, and Sunday’s statement criticized Taliban officials for doing too little to stop the Pakistani Taliban from using its territory to attack Pakistan.
“Over the past few days, incidents on the Pak-Afghanistan border have increased significantly, with Pakistani security forces being sent across the border,” Pakistan said in a statement. Last week, seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in an ambush near the border, which was later sought by the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP.
Military attacks in Pakistan have been accelerating since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan. The attacks were carried out either by the Pakistani Taliban or by a branch of the Islamic State group, also based in Afghanistan but against which the Taliban is fighting.
By the end of March this year, Pakistan had seen 52 attacks by extremists, up from 35 in the same period last year, according to Amir Rana, executive director of the Pakistan Peace Research Institute, an independent think tank that monitors militants in Pakistan. . The attacks also became more deadly. So far this year, 155 people have been killed in similar attacks in Pakistan, up from 68 last year.
The border between the two countries, known as the Durand Line, runs along a dividing line of 2,670 kilometers (1,660 miles). The Durand Line runs through the region’s ethnic Pashtun population, often dividing tribes and families between the two countries. Founded by the British in the 19th century, successive Afghan rulers refused to recognize it as an official border, instead claiming Pakistani territory known as Khyber Puhtunkhwa province, which is dominated by ethnic Pashtuns.
After taking power, the Afghan Taliban clashed with Pakistan several times over the border fence Islamabad is building.
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Associated Press writer Tamim Akgar of Islamabad contributed to this report.
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