Taliban-Pakistan Clashes Threaten Regional Stability, Says Malaysia PM

Fitrat said a child was wounded in Khost Province on Wednesday night after a mortar shell struck a civilian home.

He added that a civilian was killed and another injured during clashes between Taliban and Pakistan forces in the Shkin district of Paktika Province on Wednesday afternoon.

Fitrat also said two civilians were killed after Pakistani forces opened fire in the Kamdesh area of Nuristan Province.

According to the Taliban official, Pakistani airstrikes in the Sarkani district of Kunar Province caused heavy financial losses to residents on Wednesday but did not result in casualties.

Meanwhile, local sources told Afghanistan International that a civilian was killed in Angoor Ada in South Waziristan after a Taliban mortar shell struck the area.

Sources said several people were also injured in Bajaur District and Khyber District as fighting continued.

Local police reported that four people were wounded after a mortar shell struck the Sadokhel area of Landi Kotal in Khyber district.

According to the court, the punishments were carried out in Kabul, Khost, Bamiyan, Uruzgan, Baghlan, Balkh and Herat provinces.

In a statement posted Thursday on the court’s X account, it said 17 people were flogged in Kabul, eight in Khost, four each in Bamiyan, Balkh, Uruzgan and Baghlan, and three in Herat.

The charges included the sale and trafficking of drugs and alcohol, extramarital sexual relations, same-sex relations, theft and running away from home.

The continued use and apparent increase of public corporal punishment by the Taliban has drawn concern from international organisations.

Earlier, United Nations experts strongly condemned the rise in public corporal punishments in Afghanistan, describing them as a clear violation of international human rights law.

They said such punishments undermine human dignity and amount to cruel and inhuman treatment.

In a video message, Nasrat said Taliban forces had targeted 12 Pakistani military posts and bases over the past 24 hours. He claimed that 41 Pakistani troops were killed and 53 others wounded in the attacks.

Nasrat also alleged that Pakistani airstrikes in Khost Province targeted civilian homes and non-combatants, leaving several people killed and wounded.

Earlier, sources told Afghanistan International that Pakistani fighter jets struck a Taliban army corps in Kandahar Province on Wednesday evening. According to the sources, the strike targeted the headquarters of a special unit of the 205 Al-Badr Corps.

Meanwhile, Attaullah Tarar, Pakistan’s minister for information and broadcasting, said on Wednesday that at least 481 Taliban fighters had been killed and about 700 wounded in recent Pakistani attacks.

Nasrat said the fighting took place in Kandahar, Kunar, Nangarhar, Khost, Nuristan, Paktia and Paktika provinces.

He claimed Taliban forces killed at least 41 Pakistani troops in retaliatory attacks over the past 24 hours. Pakistani officials have not yet commented on the claim.

Nasrat added that three Taliban fighters were also killed in the clashes during the same period.

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.