What happened
Pakistan’s security forces killed 29 militants during an intelligence-based ground operation and follow-up cross-border strikes along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on the night of 28–29 June 2026, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said in a post on X, as carried by Daily Pakistan.
According to the minister’s account, forces conducted a ground operation against a group of militants near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on 28 June. A “high value” commander identified as Khan Farosh, also known as Zabal, was killed along with three fighters belonging to Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, with several others injured.
In what Tarar described as a continuation of Operation Ghazb Lil Haq, Pakistan then carried out “precise targeting” of camps and hideouts in the border region on the night of 28/29 June. Three targets in Afghanistan’s Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces were destroyed, killing 25 militants, and large quantities of weapons and ammunition stored at the sites were also destroyed, he said.
Tarar said the operation was launched in response to recent attacks inside Pakistan, including in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan and the assault on the Pakistan Rangers camp in Karachi on 27 June. A breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack, in which three Rangers personnel were killed.
Kabul’s account and the diplomatic protest
Afghanistan’s Taliban government gave a sharply different account of the cross-border strikes. Deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said the Pakistani strikes killed at least 36 civilians and wounded 163 others, Al Jazeera reported. He said casualties were concentrated in Mandokhail village, where he alleged a home was bombed and a second strike hit villagers who had gathered to help.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said preliminary figures indicated at least 28 civilians were killed and 49 injured in the strikes across the three provinces, the BBC reported. Women and children were among the victims, according to the mission.
Afghanistan’s foreign ministry said it summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaires in Kabul to hand over a protest note over what it called a violation of Afghan airspace and the bombing of civilian homes in Kunar, Paktia and Paktika. Pakistan’s Foreign Office said the summons on the Pakistani side followed the Karachi attack, and that a similar demarche was conveyed to Afghanistan’s foreign ministry.
Why it matters
The exchange marks another round in the cross-border escalation between the two neighbours, and it came less than three weeks after Pakistan’s military launched air strikes on what it said were militant hideouts inside Afghanistan. The two sides agreed a ceasefire last October, but that understanding has since unravelled, and each government has now formally protested to the other over the latest violence.
The competing casualty accounts also illustrate how difficult it remains to establish what happens along the border. The casualty figures given by Kabul and by UNAMA could not be independently verified by the outlets cited here; Pakistan says it targets militants and rejects accusations that it strikes civilians.
What is still uncertain
Neither side has released a full breakdown of the dead, and the numbers of militants and civilians killed remain contested. It is not clear whether the strikes will draw further military or diplomatic responses, or whether the latest round will push the neighbours back toward the ceasefire talks that have repeatedly stalled.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a summary of published reporting, not independent reporting. Details are as carried by the cited sources, which were reviewed on 2026-06-29.
- Daily Pakistan — "Pakistan forces kill 29 terrorists in 'well planed' operation along Afghan border"29 June 2026 · Attaullah Tarar's account of the Bajaur ground operation, the strikes in Paktia, Paktika and Kunar, and the commander named in the post.
- Al Jazeera — "Pakistan says its security forces killed 29 fighters along Afghan border"29 June 2026 · The Afghan government's claim of 36 civilians killed and 163 wounded, and the Afghan foreign ministry's protest.
- BBC — "Pakistani strikes kill at least 28 civilians in Afghanistan, UN says"29 June 2026 · UNAMA's preliminary civilian casualty figures and the wider context of the border escalation.
