Fresh cross-border violence has reignited tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, after Pakistani jets and drones carried out strikes on the eastern Afghan province of Kunar that have left at least seven civilians dead and 75 more injured, multiple informed sources have confirmed to the BBC. Among the casualties are multiple students and one faculty member from Kunar University, with the ruling Taliban administration confirming that 30 of those wounded are currently enrolled university students.
Local accounts from the strike zone paint a picture of chaos and destruction. A Kunar University professor who was on campus during the attacks described hearing deafening, terrifying explosions that rippled across the entire university grounds. Official statements from Afghanistan’s Ministry of Higher Education later confirmed that university buildings and their surrounding residential and public areas suffered extensive structural damage from the bombings.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information has issued a direct denial of the claims, dismissing reports that strikes targeted the university and residential neighborhoods as completely false manufactured information.
This latest escalation comes just weeks after a far deadlier Pakistani air strike on a drug rehabilitation facility in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul. United Nations officials have confirmed that the earlier attack killed 269 people, making it one of the deadliest cross-border strikes in the region in recent years.
The resumption of violence breaks a fragile ceasefire that had held across most of the shared border for nearly a month. That truce was brokered through Chinese diplomatic mediation, which brought representatives from both nations to talks in the Chinese city of Urumqi in early April aimed at de-escalating months of growing cross-border conflict.
Over the past six months, hundreds of people have been killed or wounded in recurring clashes and cross-border strikes between the two neighboring nations. Pakistan has repeatedly justified its air operations inside Afghan territory, stating that all strikes are targeted exclusively at militant hideouts that it says operate from Afghan soil to launch attacks against Pakistani targets. Notably, Pakistan has recently taken on a diplomatic mediation role itself, working to de-escalate tensions between Iran and the United States amid their ongoing standoff.