Key Takeaways
- Pakistan's Foreign Office rejected Taliban claims of civilian casualties in Afghan strikes.
- The FO stated that Pakistan's response was proportionate and targeted terrorist bases.
- Taliban have claimed over 1,100 civilian casualties since late 2021, but Pakistan denies these claims.
Pakistan's Foreign Office (FO) has rejected Taliban claims of civilian casualties resulting from Pakistani military operations in Afghanistan. The FO maintains that its response to terrorist threats is proportionate and targets military and terrorist infrastructure.
In a statement issued on Monday, the FO stated that the Taliban's claims are 'baseless and unsubstantiated'. The statement further highlighted that attacks from Afghan soil have claimed over 3,500 casualties in 2026, according to various United Nations reports.
The FO also noted that the Afghan Taliban continue to 'shelter with impunity' a large number of terrorist organizations, including the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).
In a separate development, a spokesperson for the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, speaking to CNN, claimed that 1,119 Afghan civilians were killed or injured in Pakistani military strikes in Afghanistan since late 2021. However, Pakistan has dismissed these allegations as 'disinformation and misleading narratives'.
The FO emphasized that Pakistan's conduct in counterterrorism operations always 'reflected restraint' and that the response was 'proportionate to the level of threat'.
Pakistan has maintained that its operations are aimed at neutralizing terrorist threats and that the Taliban's use of Afghan soil to plan and launch attacks against Pakistan is a serious concern for the international community.
The FO stated, 'Disinformation and misleading narratives will neither obscure the threat posed by the terrorist networks operating from Afghan territory nor absolve the Afghan Taliban regime of its responsibility to prevent Afghan soil from being used to plan and launch attacks against Pakistan.'
