Kunar, Afghanistan<\/b> \u2013 Recent cross-border attacks attributed to Pakistan in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province have reportedly resulted in the deaths of at least seven individuals and left 75 injured. Among the casualties are students and a professor from Kunar University, according to multiple sources speaking to the BBC.<\/p>\n
The Taliban government has stated that 30 of those injured are university students, highlighting the impact on educational institutions.<\/p>\n
In response to the accusations, Pakistan’s information ministry has vehemently denied attacking the university and residential areas, dismissing the reports as “fake news.”<\/p>\n
These latest reports of strikes in Kunar emerge weeks after a Pakistani air strike on a drug rehabilitation center in the Afghan capital, Kabul. The United Nations subsequently confirmed that this earlier incident tragically claimed the lives of 269 people.<\/p>\n
Regarding the Kunar attacks, the Taliban assert that mortars and rockets were deployed. However, other sources have informed the BBC that jets and drones were utilized in the assault, suggesting a more sophisticated operation.<\/p>\n
An unnamed professor, who was teaching at Kunar University during the incident, recounted hearing “terrifying explosions” across the university campus. Matiullah Shahab, a freelance journalist and human rights activist based in Asadabad, reported being approximately one kilometer from the university attack. He described hearing a bombardment around 14:00 (09:30 GMT) and witnessing people fleeing the town center. Shahab also confirmed that several civilians were injured and subsequently hospitalized.<\/p>\n
A statement from Afghanistan’s higher education ministry confirmed that the university’s buildings and surrounding areas sustained “extensive damage.”<\/p>\n
The recent violence marks a significant escalation in cross-border fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which has claimed hundreds of lives and caused numerous injuries in recent months.<\/p>\n
A fragile ceasefire had largely been in place for several weeks, following Chinese mediation that led to talks between the two sides in Urumqi in early April. During this period, leaders of the Taliban government had deliberately refrained from public comments regarding Pakistan or its earlier air strikes, aiming to avoid jeopardizing ongoing negotiations.<\/p>\n
However, this period of silence has now been decisively broken. Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesman for the Taliban government, publicly condemned the strikes on Kunar, labeling them as “grave and inexcusable war crimes, a blatant act of brutality, and a provocative action.”<\/p>\n
Pakistan, which has also played a mediating role in the conflict between Iran and the US, has consistently stated that its air strikes target militant hideouts within Afghanistan. Historically, Pakistan was a significant supporter of the Taliban. However, relations deteriorated after Islamabad accused the group of providing safe haven to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a group that has launched an armed insurgency against Pakistani government forces.<\/p>\n
#Afghanistan #Pakistan #KunarUniversity #CrossBorderConflict #Taliban #HumanRights #RegionalTensions #WarCrimesAllegations #InternationalRelations #SouthAsia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kunar, Afghanistan \u2013 Recent cross-border attacks attributed to Pakistan in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province have reportedly resulted in the deaths of at least seven individuals and left 75 injured. Among the casualties are students and a professor from Kunar University, according to multiple sources speaking to the BBC. The Taliban government has stated that 30 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}