Pakistan said on Monday it carried out “calibrated” airstrikes against terrorist hideouts in the border region with Afghanistan, killing more than 28 militants and destroying a suicide-bomber training centre. The information ministry said the strikes targeted camps of TTP.
According to the ministry, the operation was based on credible intelligence and focused on three sites with “precision and accuracy”. Alongside the dead, large quantities of weapons and ammunition stored at the centres were also destroyed. Officials stressed that maximum precautions were taken to avoid civilian casualties, reported by Dawn News.
The airstrikes follow a series of deadly attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including a major assault on the old Police Lines in Kohat that killed 23 people and injured about 100. Just days earlier, security forces said two officers and four others were martyred when their convoy came under fire, while eight terrorists were eliminated in the exchange.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban administration in Kabul of allowing terrorist sanctuaries to operate on Afghan soil, particularly those linked to the TTP. A UN Security Council monitoring report covering December 2025 to June 2026 said the Afghan Taliban’s continued support for the TTP has contributed to a rise in the frequency and lethality of attacks in Pakistan, even as Kabul has taken some initial steps to rein in the group. The report also noted growing operational links among the TTP, Al Qaeda, Islamic State Khorasan and the Baloch Liberation Army.
The information ministry reaffirmed that the counterterrorism campaign Ghazab lil Haq, under the broader Azm-i-Istehkam framework, would continue “at full pace” to eliminate foreign sponsored terrorism. Pakistan last conducted strikes in the border area in late June, when Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said 25 militants were killed in Paktia, Paktika and Kunar. Similar operations earlier that month reportedly killed 26 terrorists.
In recent weeks, the Foreign Office has said progress in relations with Kabul depends on “concrete and verifiable” action against TTP infrastructure. While welcoming China’s ongoing engagement, Islamabad has insisted that external facilitation cannot substitute for action by the Afghan authorities. The ministry also rejected warnings from Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid against Pakistani military operations inside Afghanistan, saying dialogue must not become a “pretence” to shield those threatening Pakistan’s people.
Complicating the picture, Germany’s DW news agency reported that the Afghan government claimed the Pakistani attack struck an earthquake relief camp in the area, killing women and children. Islamabad has not commented on the allegation, while Kabul condemned the strikes as a violation of sovereignty and called for an independent inquiry into civilian casualties.
