Asia Defense | Security | South Asia

How Former Allies Pakistan and the Taliban Came to ‘Open War’

For the first time, Pakistan has directly targeted the Afghan Taliban in cross-border strikes.

On February 27, Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq (Righteous Fury) against its former ally, the Taliban in Afghanistan. This is the first attack in which Pakistan directly targeted the Afghan Taliban. Prior to this attack, Pakistan claimed to have only targeted the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) hideouts in the country. By targeting Kabul, Kandahar – where the Taliban’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is based – and Paktika, Pakistan marked the first direct attack at the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. 

Pakistan claimed that it launched the operation after the “unprovoked firing” from across the border by the Taliban. “Our patience has now run out,” Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said. “Now it is open war between us.” 

Asif said that after the withdrawal of NATO forces in 2021, Pakistan had hoped for peace in Afghanistan and expected the Taliban to focus on regional stability and the welfare of the people of Afghanistan. He alleged that instead of doing that, the Taliban began “exporting terrorism” after gathering militants from across the world. 

In October 2025, both Pakistan and Afghanistan also carried out attacks inside each other’s territory. The strikes stopped after a ceasefire was reached on October 19, with mediation by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkiye. However, the ceasefire proved to be short-lived, as successive rounds of mediation between Kabul and Islamabad could not solve the underlying issues. 

Pakistan struck Afghanistan on February 21, targeting terrorist “camps and hideouts” used by the militant groups, mainly the TTP. Islamabad claimed the strike was in response to the recent terrorist attacks inside Pakistan, including suicide bombings a Shia mosque in Islamabad, in Bajaur and twice in Bannu – all conducted, Pakistan said, by terrorist groups using Afghan soil as their home base. 

Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said in a post on X:“Pakistan in a retributive response carried out intelligence based selective targeting of seven Terrorist camps and hideouts belonging to Pakistani Taliban of FAK and its affiliates and ISKP at the border region of Pakistan Afghan border with precision and accuracy.” It added: “Pakistan has conclusive evidence that these acts of terrorism were perpetrated by Khwarij on behest of their Afghanistan-based leadership and handlers.”

On the night of February 26, the Taliban struck Pakistan. The Taliban claimed they launched attacks against Pakistan’s military checkpoints along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in response to Pakistan’s strikes inside Afghanistan’s territory. The Afghan Taliban spokesperson, Zabiullah Mujahid, said in a post on X, which was later deleted, that they had launched strikes against Pakistani military positions in Helmund and Kandahar. The Taliban’s Ministry of Defense announced that during these retaliatory attacks along the Durand Line, it killed 110 Pakistani soldiers along with injuring 68 more. It also claimed that the Taliban forces had captured 27 posts that belonged to the Pakistani military. 

In response to the attacks – which Pakistan called “unprovoked firing” – Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq against the Taliban. According to Pakistan’s minister for information and broadcasting Attaullah Tarar, as of March 1, 415 members of the Afghan Taliban have been killed, and over 580 have been injured. Tarar also claimed that182 checks post have been destroyed and 31 posts have been captured. 

These strikes are the first by Pakistan to directly target the Taliban in Afghanistan. Previously, Pakistan claimed to precisely target terror groups operating from Afghanistan. 

On April 16, 2022, for example, Pakistan launched its first air strikes over eastern Afghanistan since the Taliban’s return to power, asserting that it targeted the TTP militants. However, as per news reports, dozens of civilians were also killed, which provoked the Taliban to issue threats against its former ally. 

On March 18, 2024, Pakistan carried out strikes in districts of Khost and Paktika provinces of Afghanistan, in which eight individuals, including five members of the TTP, were killed. In July 2024, Asif told the BBC that “Pakistan will continue to launch attacks against Afghanistan as part of a new military operation aimed at countering terrorism.” He also claimed that “the aerial strikes were targeting groups which Pakistan accuses of targeting security forces and civilians.” 

Responding to this, the Taliban called the Pakistani defense minister’s statement “irresponsible” and warned Pakistan that there would be “consequences” for the cross-border........

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