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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan traded sharp warnings on Friday after Kabul accused Islamabad of violating its airspace and bombing a border town while the Pakistani military vowed to do “whatever is necessary” to defend its territorial integrity.

Pakistan has long accused Afghanistan of allowing the use of its soil and India of backing militant groups to carry outattacks against Pakistan. Kabul and New Delhi both deny the allegation.

The military spokesman, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, held a lengthy news conference in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, citing the threat of cross-border militancy only days after the killing of at least a dozen Pakistani soldiers, including three officers, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province that borders Afghanistan.

His media interaction came after reports of airstrikes in the Afghan capital, Kabul, that purportedly sought to target Noor Wali Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban chief.

“We just ask them [the Afghan authorities] for an extremely fair, just thing that, ‘do not let your soil become a haven for non-state actors and terrorist groups,’” Chaudhry said at the media briefing.

“For the safety of the life and property of the people of Pakistan, for the territorial integrity of Pakistan, we are doing and we will continue to do whatever is necessary.”

He said Pakistani security forces have been conducting over 40 operations against militants on a daily basis, which have resulted in the killing of more than 900 militants so far this year.

More than 300 Pakistani security personnel have also died in these operations, he added.

Chaudhry lamented a lack of implementation of all 14 points of the National Action Plan, a comprehensive strategy devised in 2014 to eradicate militant violence, other than the one stressing kinetic operations against militants.

He was particularly critical of the KP administration, run by jailed former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, while attributing the surge in militancy in the province to governance challenges.

“Governance gaps and poor policy implementation have allowed militants and their facilitators to find space [to generate violence], forcing the armed forces to fill the void with their blood and sacrifice,” he said.

Khan has recently dismissed the chief minister of KP, Ali Amin Gandapur, for allowing military operations in the province.

The PTI founding leader has repeatedly called on the KP administration to hold direct talks with Kabul to ensure peace in the province.

The military spokesman criticized the approach, urging the KP government to focus on protecting its people instead of “begging Afghanistan” for security.

“If every problem could be solved through dialogue, no wars would have been fought,” he said.

Chaudhry emphasized that the state would not be held hostage by those facilitating militants.

“No one will be permitted to barter away the rights or future of the people of KP for personal gain,” he said.

Responding to his criticism, Zulfi Bukhari, a close aide to ex-premier Khan, said, “the sensible path is to bring on board the largest stakeholder with the public’s mandate in KP, to craft a comprehensive strategy to dismantle terror networks while protecting civilians.”

“We pray for our brave martyrs and urge our leaders to choose strategy over spectacle,” he added.

AFGHAN REFUGEES

During his media interaction, the military spokesman also defended Pakistan’s decision to repatriate Afghan refugees.

The country launched its deportation drive in 2023 after a string of deadly suicide attacks in which it said several Afghan nationals were found to be involved.

“In 2014, it was unanimously decided to repatriate Afghan refugees, and the same decision was reaffirmed in 2021,” he said.

“So where did this idea come from that they should not be sent back?” he continued, while referring to Khan’s opposition to the idea.

He reiterated that there were militant safe havens in Afghanistan, while pointing out that modern weapons used by radical outfits were also contributing to the intensity of the militant violence in the country.

Meanwhile, the Afghan defense ministry said in a social media message that Pakistani forces had “targeted a civilian market in the Margha area of Paktika province” near the international border and also “violated the airspace over the capital, Kabul.”

The ministry called the strikes “unprecedented, violent, and reprehensible,” warning that “regardless of how critical the situation becomes, the consequences will fall on the Pakistani army.”

However, the foreign office in Islamabad said in its weekly media briefing Pakistan has consistently prioritized diplomacy while dealing with Afghanistan, even in the face of persistent threats emanating from militant hideouts and sanctuaries in that country.

It also urged Kabul to ensure that Afghan “territory is not used as a launch pad for terrorist activities against Pakistan.”

Pakistan has struggled to contain a surge in militancy in KP since a fragile truce between the government and the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), broke down in Nov. 2022.

The TTP, which is a separate group but is viewed by Pakistani officials as an ally of the Afghan Taliban, has been behind some of the deadliest attacks in Pakistan since the late 2000s.

Islamabad launched multiple military operations over the last two decades to push back TTP fighters and other militants, but officials say they have managed to regroup in the rugged, mountainous northwest during their monthslong truce with the government.