Pakistan Issues Stern Warning to Afghanistan

Amid the ongoing escalation with Afghanistan, Pakistan army chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir on Saturday asked Kabul to take a firm stand against terrorists targeting Pakistan from its soil and warned it to choose between “peace and chaos”.

Choose between “peace and chaos”, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) said, referring to Afghanistan while addressing a graduation ceremony of passing out army cadets at the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) Kakul at Abbottabad in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Blaming terrorists operating from Afghanistan for attacking Pakistan, Munir said the Taliban regime should act decisively against them.

All proxies using Afghan soil would be met with a response to “raise them to dust”, Munir warned.

Tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan have flared up since last weekend when Taliban forces launched retaliatory strikes against Pakistan for allegedly attacking the Afghan capital Kabul, which the latter blamed it for.

The fighting along the border, which was halted after Qatar and Saudi's intervention, resumed on Tuesday. The two sides reached a fragile truce for 48 hours and extended it till the conclusion of talks which are set to begin shortly in Doha. However, the hostilities began again on Friday after Pakistan's strike on Afghanistan killed 10 civillians, including three local cricketers.

Islamabad has consistently urged the Taliban government to prevent terrorist groups from using Afghan territory for cross-border attacks. Kabul, however, denies these allegations, insisting that Afghan soil is not being used against any neighbouring country.

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The situation deteriorated between the two neighbours following repeated terrorist attacks by the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), allegedly using the Afghan soil, including one in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Orakzai district recently, which claimed the lives of 11 military personnel, including a Lt Colonel and a Major.

Meanwhile, Reuters also quoted a Pakistani security officials saying that the ceasefire was struck with the Afghan Taliban, and not with the Islamist militants holed up in Afghanistan, who launch attacks in Pakistan.

According to Afghanistan's Tolo News, the airstrikes reportedly targeted residential areas in the Urgun and Barmal districts of the country, causing significant civilian casualties.