Afghan govt lodges protest with Pakistan over airstrikes
Insight Online News
Kabul, Dec 26 : The Afghan Foreign Ministry has summoned the charge d’affaires of Pakistan in Kabul over the bombing of Afghanistan’s western province of Paktika by the Pakistani air force.
Earlier on Wednesday, Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesman of the Taliban-led (under UN sanctions for terrorism) Afghan government, said that 46 people were killed in the Pakistani air force’s raid on Paktika.
“As a sign of strong protest, the ministry handed the Pakistani diplomat a note condemning the recent airstrikes,” the ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Protecting the territorial integrity of Afghanistan is a “red line for the Islamic Emirate,” the statement added, noting that “such reckless actions will have serious and far-reaching consequences.”
Pakistan’s strikes, which were carried out on Tuesday night, reportedly targeted fighters of the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Islamist group from Pakistan’s Waziristan region who had fled to Afghanistan. The strikes killed several militants and destroyed four TTP operational bases, Pakistani media reported.
The Afghan authorities consider the Waziristani refugees to be ordinary civilians from tribal areas who have been forced to flee their homes due to military operations by the Pakistani armed forces.
