Pakistan’s Punitive Gamble in Afghanistan: An Open War With No End in Sight — The Diplomat

In the early hours of September 24, Pakistan carried out air and drone strikes on ten locations inside Afghanistan. Subsequently, Afghan media identified Kandahar – where the Taliban’s supreme leader (Amir-al-Mu’minin) Hibatullah Akhundzada is based – as well as Khost and Paktia as the provinces targeted. A few hours later, Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar posted on social media that the strikes were “deliberate, precise, calibrated and proportionate” and were “strictly limited to identified military objectives directly linked to the attempted attacks against Pakistan.” “Attempted attacks” was a reference to earlier Pakistani claims that it had shot down ten rudimentary drones launched from inside Afghanistan that entered Pakistani territory with a “soft kill” approach. Two days earlier, on September 21, Pakistani air strikes on Kunar and Paktika provinces killed three civilians – a man, a woman, and a girl – in Kunar’s Nurgal district. Islamabad claimed to have killed 28 militants in the attack. The civilian casualties, which were confirmed by UNAMA, saw Afghan protesters hitting the streets in Kabul and elsewhere. This Pakistani strike was in response to an attack on a police compound in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kohat, killing at least 16 police officers on September 18. On that day a vehicle-borne explosive device breached the police compound during Friday prayers. This was followed by an armed assault by…