Military clashes between the Taliban and Pakistan entered a seventh day on Wednesday, 4 March. The tensions began after cross-border attacks by the Taliban, which the group described as retaliatory.
Reports on Wednesday indicated fighting along the border in Nangarhar Province and Pakistani airstrikes in Paktia Province and Kandahar.
Attaullah Tarar, Pakistan’s minister for information and broadcasting, said that since the start of the clashes 481 Taliban fighters had been killed, 696 wounded and 226 Taliban checkpoints destroyed.
The Norwegian Refugee Council said Pakistani missiles struck near a displacement camp in Kunar Province, killing at least three people and wounding seven.
On the diplomatic front, Amir Khan Muttaqi held talks with Zhao Xingc, the Chinese ambassador on the security situation and the clashes with Pakistan. Russia also urged both sides to resolve tensions through dialogue.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom again advised its citizens not to travel to Afghanistan.
Inside Afghanistan, the Taliban’s defence ministry displayed what it described as captured Pakistani weapons.
Separately, Rana Sanaullah, a senior adviser to Pakistan’s prime minister, said establishing a buffer zone to prevent militants entering from Afghanistan was necessary and formed part of the government’s policy. He said the Afghan Taliban had opposed the proposal.
Asim Munir, Pakistan’s army chief, said during a visit to military centres in Waziristan that the conflict would continue, adding that peace would not be achieved as long as the Afghan Taliban continued to support insurgents.
At the same time, the United Nations said at least 66,000 people had been displaced inside Afghanistan in the past week alone as a result of the clashes.
After several clerics close to the Taliban in Afghanistan issued fatwas in recent days declaring jihad against the Pakistani army, a similar reaction emerged in Pakistan.
Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, head of the Pakistan Ulema Council, responded by declaring that the Pakistani military’s clashes with the Taliban in the border areas of Afghanistan constitute jihad.
Speaking at a press conference alongside several Pakistani clerics, he said Pakistani forces were confronting what he described as terrorists and that religious scholars and the public in Pakistan supported the army’s operations.
