Mandtah Village (Afghanistan): It was around 3 in the morning. Afghanistan When a deafening thunder woke up Qudratullah. Confused, he staggered to the door of his mud-brick house, looked out and froze.
Thick plumes of black smoke and dust filled the air. In front of the modest house where his relatives lived was a pile of rubble. His 3-year-old nephew was crying standing in the yard. Behind him, four more children were spread out on the pale earth, their lifeless frames covered in blood.
Qudratulla ran towards them, he said. Then there was another explosion.
Afghan officials said their village, Mandata, was one of four in eastern Afghanistan hit by Pakistani airstrikes this month that killed at least 45 people, including 20 children.
Among them were 27 relatives of Qudratullah – an almost incomprehensible loss. Qudratullah, a favorite of many in Afghanistan, has lost his 16-year-old wife, who was buried under a pile of rubble in a second airstrike. His elder brother, who survived, lost all four of his daughters, all younger than 11.
“I am devastated,” said Qudratullah. “I lost my wife, my relatives, my house, my vehicle, my animals, everything.”
Airstrikes in Khost and Kunar provinces two weeks ago marked a serious escalation of cross-border conflict in this remote, wild and rocky part of Afghanistan and heightened tensions between the two countries, which have navigated a fragile relationship. Taliban captured power last year
Pakistani officials did not confirm or comment on the airstrikes.
The airstrikes, which Afghan officials said were carried out by Pakistani military aircraft, came days after militants said seven soldiers were killed from across the border after operating from the area. Pakistan,
In eastern Afghanistan, many feared that the massacre of recent airstrikes was the beginning of a violent new chapter in the long-running conflict in tribal lands that had spread across the porous border. Reinforcing those concerns, Afghanistan’s acting defense minister, Mullah Muhammad Yacoub, warned in a speech on Sunday that the Taliban government would not tolerate any “invasion” from neighboring countries on Afghan soil.
Asfandyar Mir, a senior expert at the United States Institute of Peace, said, “Pakistan is sending manned aircraft and killing so many people in different places, the Taliban’s defense minister has threatened war if there are more attacks.” – This is a turning point.”
For more than a decade, Pakistani officials have sought to stamp out militants hostile to the Pakistani state in Afghanistan’s border areas, who sporadically hit the area with artillery, killing a handful of civilians each year.
After the Taliban toppled the Western-backed government in Afghanistan, many in Pakistan hoped that the insurgents had become rulers – who have benefited from Pakistan’s support in the past 20 years of war – carried out by Tehrik-e-Terrorists. Will put an end to violence. Taliban Pakistan or Pakistani Taliban.
But in recent months, attacks by the group in Pakistan have increased: since the fall of the Western-backed Afghan government in August, the Pakistani Taliban have carried out 82 attacks in Pakistan, more than double the number of the same period last year. According to Islamabad-based Pak Institute of Peace Studies. 133 people were killed in these attacks.
Those numbers are still relatively small compared to the height of the Pakistani Taliban insurgency around 2009, but a recent sharp increase in violence has fueled fears that the group is gaining strength after a decade of decline, And it has reinforced concerns that the new Taliban government could become a haven for terrorists under Afghanistan.
Analysts say the Islamic State group has launched several attacks across the country, mainly against Afghanistan’s Shia minorities, while the Pakistani Taliban have resumed operations.
Taliban officials have denied providing safe haven to terrorists, including the Pakistani Taliban, but the issue has become a flashpoint between Afghan and Pakistani officials, who claim that the terrorist group – carrying out one of the worst terrorist attacks in Pakistan’s history To account for some – have become enthused under the new Taliban government and allowed to operate freely on Afghan soil.
The Pakistani Taliban, which analysts estimate has several thousand fighters in eastern Afghanistan, has maintained ties with the Taliban for more than a decade and has pledged allegiance to the Taliban leader. Last year hundreds of imprisoned Pakistani Taliban militants were released from prison as the Afghan Taliban seized major cities and freed their prisons.
“It would be appropriate to describe the TTP as the ideological twin of the Afghan Taliban,” said Madiha Afzal, a fellow of the Brookings Institution, using the acronym for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. “When the Taliban occupied Afghanistan last year, the TTP hailed the Taliban’s ‘victory’ and renewed its oath of allegiance.”
The villages affected by the recent air raids are nestled among mountains surrounded by pine forests. With the soil too stubborn for large-scale farming, most residents extract a live harvested pine nut each fall or collect wood from the forest to sell in the local market.
The glow of the barbed wire fence dividing Pakistan and Afghanistan is visible just above the horizon. The border, known as the Durand Line, cut straight through traditional Pashtun land and for decades was little more for divided families on either side than a line drawn in maps of British colonial officials.
The fence has been a source of tension between the two countries ever since Pakistani authorities began its construction on the disputed border in 2019.
When the Pakistani military launched a massive military operation against terrorists in 2014, hundreds of thousands of people fled from fighter-bombers invading Pakistan’s tribal areas and moved to Afghanistan to seek refuge with relatives.
Among them were many terrorists along with the Pakistani Taliban, who had found refuge among the Taliban. For years, they quietly regrouped, amid the threat of US airstrikes and invasions by Western-backed Afghan security forces. But since the Taliban seized power last year, many militants, now able to move freely, have returned to their relatives’ homes on the border, residents say.
Signs of their presence and support are abundant: Children wear small buttons emblazoned with pictures of Hakimullah Mehsud, the second emir of the Pakistani Taliban, who was killed in a US drone strike in 2013. The flag of the terrorist group is hoisted above the houses and shops.
And unlike many other parts of the country, where Taliban security forces conduct door-to-door searches to collect weapons from civilians, these villages are full of armed men.
But as signs of Pakistani Taliban militants have increased in recent months, so has the shelling from Pakistan, residents say. Nevertheless, the devastation caused by the air strikes on April 16 was unlike anything he had experienced.
Around 3 that morning in Kanai village, 30-year-old Rangin realized that his wife was prompting him to wake up for suhoor, the meal before the Muslim day-long fast during the holy month of Ramadan. A migrant from North Waziristan in Pakistan, he fled during the military offensive and eventually built a small house on an Afghan hill where he lived with his wife and four children.
Rangin had told his wife to let her sleep; Then the walls and ceiling fell from above them in a deafening boom, he said. Trapped under the rubble, his right hand was pressed against the torso of his wife, who swelled and drowned while fighting for breath. Minutes later, two more blasts destroyed a neighbor’s vacant home and a shop down the road, killing his 16-year-old shopkeeper.
After half an hour, Rangin could not feel the movement of his wife’s chest. She was eventually rescued, but she was dead, along with her three daughters, ages 1, 3 and 10.
“Why are they bombing us?” He asked, standing in the rubble of his house. “We are just refugees. It’s a cruelty.”
Fragments of torn banknotes out of 150,000 Pakistani rupees, about $800, he hoisted on the ground around his house in savings. In interviews here, like others, he said that he has nothing to do with the Pakistani Taliban.
Around the same time, an explosion occurred in the nearby Mandata village, in front of Qudratullah’s family home. His relative and neighbor, 21-year-old Sadamullah, along with his aunt, uncle and cousin, strangled the smoke and ran towards the house. He could trace the bodies of children lying on the lawn and red flames engulfed in the family’s tractor and pickup truck.
But before Sadamullah could understand anything, another blast hit the back of the house, causing him to fall to the ground. When he came near, he saw his cousin lying on the ground, feet covered in blood. His aunt and uncle got buried under the rubble.
“My hands, feet and brain were not working for almost 20 minutes. I lost control,” said Sadamullah.
Six days later, Qudratullah, his brother Zargit and dozens of their surviving relatives gathered inside a large canvas tent and prayed for their lost family members. All that was left in his house was a pile of rubble. The grille of his pickup hung from a tree branch, and the skull of a sheep from his flock sat in a puddle. On top of a nearby hill, white flags and 27 piles of stones sat atop a fresh mass grave.
“I lost my home, I lost my family, I lost everything,” said 30-year-old Zargit. “Now I am alone.”
Thick plumes of black smoke and dust filled the air. In front of the modest house where his relatives lived was a pile of rubble. His 3-year-old nephew was crying standing in the yard. Behind him, four more children were spread out on the pale earth, their lifeless frames covered in blood.
Qudratulla ran towards them, he said. Then there was another explosion.
Afghan officials said their village, Mandata, was one of four in eastern Afghanistan hit by Pakistani airstrikes this month that killed at least 45 people, including 20 children.
Among them were 27 relatives of Qudratullah – an almost incomprehensible loss. Qudratullah, a favorite of many in Afghanistan, has lost his 16-year-old wife, who was buried under a pile of rubble in a second airstrike. His elder brother, who survived, lost all four of his daughters, all younger than 11.
“I am devastated,” said Qudratullah. “I lost my wife, my relatives, my house, my vehicle, my animals, everything.”
Airstrikes in Khost and Kunar provinces two weeks ago marked a serious escalation of cross-border conflict in this remote, wild and rocky part of Afghanistan and heightened tensions between the two countries, which have navigated a fragile relationship. Taliban captured power last year
Pakistani officials did not confirm or comment on the airstrikes.
The airstrikes, which Afghan officials said were carried out by Pakistani military aircraft, came days after militants said seven soldiers were killed from across the border after operating from the area. Pakistan,
In eastern Afghanistan, many feared that the massacre of recent airstrikes was the beginning of a violent new chapter in the long-running conflict in tribal lands that had spread across the porous border. Reinforcing those concerns, Afghanistan’s acting defense minister, Mullah Muhammad Yacoub, warned in a speech on Sunday that the Taliban government would not tolerate any “invasion” from neighboring countries on Afghan soil.
Asfandyar Mir, a senior expert at the United States Institute of Peace, said, “Pakistan is sending manned aircraft and killing so many people in different places, the Taliban’s defense minister has threatened war if there are more attacks.” – This is a turning point.”
For more than a decade, Pakistani officials have sought to stamp out militants hostile to the Pakistani state in Afghanistan’s border areas, who sporadically hit the area with artillery, killing a handful of civilians each year.
After the Taliban toppled the Western-backed government in Afghanistan, many in Pakistan hoped that the insurgents had become rulers – who have benefited from Pakistan’s support in the past 20 years of war – carried out by Tehrik-e-Terrorists. Will put an end to violence. Taliban Pakistan or Pakistani Taliban.
But in recent months, attacks by the group in Pakistan have increased: since the fall of the Western-backed Afghan government in August, the Pakistani Taliban have carried out 82 attacks in Pakistan, more than double the number of the same period last year. According to Islamabad-based Pak Institute of Peace Studies. 133 people were killed in these attacks.
Those numbers are still relatively small compared to the height of the Pakistani Taliban insurgency around 2009, but a recent sharp increase in violence has fueled fears that the group is gaining strength after a decade of decline, And it has reinforced concerns that the new Taliban government could become a haven for terrorists under Afghanistan.
Analysts say the Islamic State group has launched several attacks across the country, mainly against Afghanistan’s Shia minorities, while the Pakistani Taliban have resumed operations.
Taliban officials have denied providing safe haven to terrorists, including the Pakistani Taliban, but the issue has become a flashpoint between Afghan and Pakistani officials, who claim that the terrorist group – carrying out one of the worst terrorist attacks in Pakistan’s history To account for some – have become enthused under the new Taliban government and allowed to operate freely on Afghan soil.
The Pakistani Taliban, which analysts estimate has several thousand fighters in eastern Afghanistan, has maintained ties with the Taliban for more than a decade and has pledged allegiance to the Taliban leader. Last year hundreds of imprisoned Pakistani Taliban militants were released from prison as the Afghan Taliban seized major cities and freed their prisons.
“It would be appropriate to describe the TTP as the ideological twin of the Afghan Taliban,” said Madiha Afzal, a fellow of the Brookings Institution, using the acronym for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. “When the Taliban occupied Afghanistan last year, the TTP hailed the Taliban’s ‘victory’ and renewed its oath of allegiance.”
The villages affected by the recent air raids are nestled among mountains surrounded by pine forests. With the soil too stubborn for large-scale farming, most residents extract a live harvested pine nut each fall or collect wood from the forest to sell in the local market.
The glow of the barbed wire fence dividing Pakistan and Afghanistan is visible just above the horizon. The border, known as the Durand Line, cut straight through traditional Pashtun land and for decades was little more for divided families on either side than a line drawn in maps of British colonial officials.
The fence has been a source of tension between the two countries ever since Pakistani authorities began its construction on the disputed border in 2019.
When the Pakistani military launched a massive military operation against terrorists in 2014, hundreds of thousands of people fled from fighter-bombers invading Pakistan’s tribal areas and moved to Afghanistan to seek refuge with relatives.
Among them were many terrorists along with the Pakistani Taliban, who had found refuge among the Taliban. For years, they quietly regrouped, amid the threat of US airstrikes and invasions by Western-backed Afghan security forces. But since the Taliban seized power last year, many militants, now able to move freely, have returned to their relatives’ homes on the border, residents say.
Signs of their presence and support are abundant: Children wear small buttons emblazoned with pictures of Hakimullah Mehsud, the second emir of the Pakistani Taliban, who was killed in a US drone strike in 2013. The flag of the terrorist group is hoisted above the houses and shops.
And unlike many other parts of the country, where Taliban security forces conduct door-to-door searches to collect weapons from civilians, these villages are full of armed men.
But as signs of Pakistani Taliban militants have increased in recent months, so has the shelling from Pakistan, residents say. Nevertheless, the devastation caused by the air strikes on April 16 was unlike anything he had experienced.
Around 3 that morning in Kanai village, 30-year-old Rangin realized that his wife was prompting him to wake up for suhoor, the meal before the Muslim day-long fast during the holy month of Ramadan. A migrant from North Waziristan in Pakistan, he fled during the military offensive and eventually built a small house on an Afghan hill where he lived with his wife and four children.
Rangin had told his wife to let her sleep; Then the walls and ceiling fell from above them in a deafening boom, he said. Trapped under the rubble, his right hand was pressed against the torso of his wife, who swelled and drowned while fighting for breath. Minutes later, two more blasts destroyed a neighbor’s vacant home and a shop down the road, killing his 16-year-old shopkeeper.
After half an hour, Rangin could not feel the movement of his wife’s chest. She was eventually rescued, but she was dead, along with her three daughters, ages 1, 3 and 10.
“Why are they bombing us?” He asked, standing in the rubble of his house. “We are just refugees. It’s a cruelty.”
Fragments of torn banknotes out of 150,000 Pakistani rupees, about $800, he hoisted on the ground around his house in savings. In interviews here, like others, he said that he has nothing to do with the Pakistani Taliban.
Around the same time, an explosion occurred in the nearby Mandata village, in front of Qudratullah’s family home. His relative and neighbor, 21-year-old Sadamullah, along with his aunt, uncle and cousin, strangled the smoke and ran towards the house. He could trace the bodies of children lying on the lawn and red flames engulfed in the family’s tractor and pickup truck.
But before Sadamullah could understand anything, another blast hit the back of the house, causing him to fall to the ground. When he came near, he saw his cousin lying on the ground, feet covered in blood. His aunt and uncle got buried under the rubble.
“My hands, feet and brain were not working for almost 20 minutes. I lost control,” said Sadamullah.
Six days later, Qudratullah, his brother Zargit and dozens of their surviving relatives gathered inside a large canvas tent and prayed for their lost family members. All that was left in his house was a pile of rubble. The grille of his pickup hung from a tree branch, and the skull of a sheep from his flock sat in a puddle. On top of a nearby hill, white flags and 27 piles of stones sat atop a fresh mass grave.
“I lost my home, I lost my family, I lost everything,” said 30-year-old Zargit. “Now I am alone.”