Pakistan kills 29 militants in border raids after nationwide attacks

Pakistan said its security forces killed 29 militants in an intelligence-based operation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on Sunday, pairing a ground assault near Bajaur with follow-on calibrated strikes across the frontier. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the raids hit militant hideouts and safe havens in Afghanistan’s Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces.

Tarar said the first phase took place near Bajaur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where security forces targeted a group of militants on the ground before expanding the operation. He said Khan Farosh, also known as Zabal, was among those killed, along with three other militants in the Bajaur action. The later strikes, he said, destroyed three targets and wiped out large quantities of weapons and ammunition stored at the camps.

Pakistan said the operation targeted Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fitna al-Khawarij, the term Islamabad uses for the Pakistani Taliban. The message from the military was not limited to a body count: by moving from a local ground raid to strikes across the border, Islamabad signaled a wider willingness to hit alleged militant infrastructure in Afghanistan, where it says armed groups have operated with impunity.

The raids came a day after militants armed with guns and explosives attacked the regional headquarters of the Pakistan Rangers in Karachi, killing three soldiers. Security forces killed three attackers and arrested a fourth, wounded assailant whom the military identified as an Afghan national. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack.

The latest escalation fits a pattern that has hardened since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021. Pakistan has repeatedly blamed militant groups based in Afghan territory for attacks inside the country, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, and has warned that cross-border terrorism remains its greatest security threat. On June 10, Pakistan said precision strikes along the Afghan border killed 26 militants, underscoring how often the border has become a launch point for retaliation and counter-retaliation.