The Taliban government said that the death toll in Pakistan’s airstrikes on eastern Afghanistan has risen to 46. Among the dead mostly are women and children, a Taliban government official said on Wednesday, raising fears of further straining the relations between the two neighbours.
“Those killed in the strikes that targeted four locations in Barmal, a district in the province of Paktika, were refugees, adding that six others were also wounded,” said Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesman for the Taliban government.
Pakistan’s operation was to dismantle a training facility and kill insurgents in Paktika in Afghanistan, the Pakistani security officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with regulations, told The Associated Press.
Unarmed refugees were targeted: Pakistani Taliban
Earlier Wednesday, Mohammad Khurasani, the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed in a statement that 50 people, including 27 women and children, have died in the strikes.
He said they were “unarmed refugees” who fled to Afghanistan because of Pakistan’s offensive in the northwest.
The TTP — a separate group but also a close ally of the Afghan Taliban — also shared photos, alleging they were of children killed during the Pakistani operation.
The strikes came hours after Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan’s special representative for Afghanistan, travelled to Kabul to discuss a range of issues.
