Pakistan wary of militant attacks after Afghanistan air strikes

Pakistan has boosted security and ‌arrested dozens of suspects as it fears rising wave of militant attacks following its air strikes ​in Afghanistan, Junior Interior Minister Talal Chaudhry said on Wednesday.

“Our forces are on high-alert to combat ‌any attacks,” Chaudhry told Reuters. “You know the militants always react whenever we go after their hideouts in Afghanistan.”

Pakistan carried out air strikes on targets in Afghanistan over the weekend on what it said were militant targets responsible for ‌a spate of recent suicide bombings on Pakistani soil.

Islamabad blames Kabul for allowing the fighters to use Afghanistan as a safe haven. Kabul denies the charges, saying the militancy is Pakistan’s internal problem.

Pakistani and Afghan forces exchanged fire along their border on Tuesday, with each side accusing the other of initiating the clash.

There have also been a number of militant attacks, including the ambush of a police vehicle in Kohat city in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in which five officers and ​two civilians were killed and a suicide bombing at a checkpoint that killed two policemen.

Chaudhry ‌said the retaliatory attacks by militants proved Islamabad’s case that they had linkages in Afghanistan, adding that the forces had averted several attacks in recent weeks and arrested a number of suspects, including Afghans.

Security forces have accelerated search and intelligence based operations and “have arrested dozens of suspected militants, their handlers and their facilitators,” the minister said.

Multiple sources added that Pakistan’s intelligence agencies have issued alerts for a possible surge in ​terror attacks in Pakistan ‌in coming days.

Urban centres, markets, security forces and places of worship could be possible targets, ‌according to the alerts, the sources said.

“We have been given a strong caution about more terror attacks in our official communications. In this regard, we have almost doubled our search operations across Pakistan,” said an intelligence official.

Another intelligence ‌official added the ‌provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan are already under terror attacks and “we fear that Afghanistan will retaliate against Pakistan through terror ‌networks in Punjab and Sindh as well.”

Earlier, militants ambushed a ​police vehicle and a suicide bomber struck a checkpoint in separate ‌attacks in Pakistan on ‌Tuesday, police said.

In Kohat city in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, militants attacked a ‌police patrol, killing five officers and setting their vehicle ablaze, a police spokesperson said. Two civilians later died of their injuries.

In a separate incident in Bhakkar district in Punjab province, a suicide bomber targeted the inter-provincial Dajal check post.

District police chief for Bhakkar Shahzad Rafique said two police officials died while five people, including two polio workers, were injured.

The Pakistani Taliban, also ​known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for both attacks.

Punjab police chief ‌Abdul Karim said officers stood “like a wall of steel” against what he described as “Fitna Al Khawarij,” a term the state uses for militants.

Pakistan carried out air strikes in Afghanistan on Saturday on what it said were militant targets responsible for a spate of recent suicide bombings on Pakistani soil.

Islamabad has said militant groups ​have been ‌provided sanctuary in Afghanistan, from where they plan and execute attacks across ‌the border. Afghanistan denies the charge, saying the militancy is Pakistan’s internal problem.

Kabul and the United Nations have said the strikes killed at least 13 civilians.

“Pakistan’s attack was ‌an act ‌of terror that targeted civilians on Afghan soil and violated Afghanistan’s sovereignty,” Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said ‌on Tuesday.

The districts bordering Afghanistan have long been home to a variety of militant groups, including TTP, who have fought against the state since 2007.

Militancy is a growing problem for Pakistan with the number of attacks rising every year since 2022, according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), a global monitoring organisation.

Reuters