The Afghan Taliban said on Wednesday that Pakistani air strikes in Afghanistan’s Paktika province killed at least 46 people, most of them women and children.
Taliban deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said that six people were also injured in bomb blasts at four places in Afghanistan.
The government pledged to take retaliatory action.
Afghanistan’s Foreign Office said it had called Pakistan’s chief of mission in Kabul to deliver a formal protest letter to Islamabad over the bombing, warning the diplomat of the consequences of such actions.
“Afghanistan considers this brutal act a gross violation of all international principles and a clear act of aggression,” National Defense Ministry spokesman Inayatullah Khorazmi said in a statement.
Pakistani soldiers killed in clashes with local Taliban group
Pakistan has not yet officially commented on the apparent air strikes inside Afghanistan. However, Pakistani security officials anonymously told the AP news agency that the aim of the operation was to destroy a training facility and kill insurgents in the area.
The attacks came soon after Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq visited Kabul to discuss a range of issues.
There have been numerous terrorist attacks in Pakistan in recent years, with the latest attack occurring this weekend, when the Taliban in Pakistan (TTP) killed 16 Pakistani soldiers in the northwest of the country.
The TTP pledges allegiance to the Afghan Taliban, but is not directly part of the group that rules Afghanistan.
The group’s stated aim is to impose Islamic religious law in Pakistan, similar to the Taliban in Afghanistan.
ftm/dj (Reuters, AP)
