ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar confirmed that Pakistan carried out precision aerial and drone strikes against 10 locations in Afghanistan, in what he described as an act of self-defence following a drone incursion launched from Afghan territory a day earlier.
In a statement posted on X and labelled “Update, Ghazab Lil Haq,” the same name Pakistan gave an earlier round of cross-border strikes in February, Tarar said: “Pakistan condemns in the strongest possible terms the deliberate and unlawful incursion into Pakistan by drones on 23 September 2026, launched from Afghan territory. This constitutes a blatant violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and is a grave and unacceptable act of aggression.”
Tarar said Pakistan’s air defence systems “detected, tracked and neutralised all intruding platforms before they could reach any of their intended targets, comprehensively thwarting the attempted attack.” He said Pakistan then exercised its right to respond. “In exercise of its sovereign right to self-defence, Pakistan conducted precision aerial and drone strikes against 10 locations in Afghanistan used for launching and storing these drones,” he said. “The strikes were deliberate, precise, calibrated and proportionate and strictly limited to identified military objectives directly linked to the attempted attacks against Pakistan.”
He placed the incident within what he described as a longer pattern of Taliban inaction. “For years, Pakistan has repeatedly conveyed its grave concerns to the Afghan Taliban regime and its interlocutors regarding the continued presence of terrorist sanctuaries and their support networks on Afghan soil,” he said. “Instead of dismantling these networks and taking credible and verifiable action against those using Afghan territory to perpetrate terrorism against Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban regime has chosen to escalate the situation through hostile drone operations against Pakistan.”
Tarar warned Pakistan would not tolerate further violations. “Pakistan will neither accept nor tolerate attacks launched from Afghan territory, whether by terrorist groups or by the Afghan Taliban regime itself. Any violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty will be met with an immediate and decisive response,” he said. “Threats, denials or attempts to deflect responsibility by Afghan Taliban will neither alter the facts nor constrain Pakistan’s inherent right to defend its territory, its people and its national security.”
He called on the Taliban administration to “immediately cease all hostile activity against Pakistan” and to take “effective, concrete, verifiable and sustained action against terrorist entities operating from Afghan soil,” saying “Afghan territory must not be used to launch attacks or conduct hostile operations against Pakistan.” At the same time, he said Pakistan “does not seek escalation and remains committed to regional peace, dialogue and constructive engagement,” adding that “this commitment must not be mistaken for weakness or an unlimited tolerance of hostile actions.” He said Pakistan “will defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity and the lives of its citizens with full resolve,” and warned that “any further provocative act by Afghan Taliban will be responded with firm and resolute response.”
Independent reporting has added some detail beyond Tarar’s own statement. Security sources cited by Pakistani outlets said four of eight intercepted drones were brought down in areas adjoining the Torkham border crossing, with the remaining four shot down near Kohat, and that Afghan Taliban forces separately fired mortars and heavy weapons at Pakistani border posts, drawing artillery fire from Pakistani forces in response. AFP separately reported that the retaliatory strikes hit the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, citing a resident who described hearing a jet followed by an explosion and a fire in the city centre; Afghan officials had not responded to AFP’s request for comment.
The strikes follow a suicide bombing and gun attack on a mosque inside Kohat’s Old Police Lines during Friday prayers that killed 23 people and wounded around 100, an attack the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting blamed on Afghanistan-based militants days earlier while warning Pakistan had “both the will and the capability to eliminate terrorist threats wherever they are.” Pakistan first used the name Ghazab Lil Haqq for a round of airstrikes in February that killed at least 18 people in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar and Paktika provinces by Afghan government accounts.
