It’s ‘open war’ on Afghan Taliban, declares Pakistan

KARACHI: Pakistan on Friday said it considers itself in an "open war" with Afghanistan, as its forces killed more than 130 Taliban fighters in airstrikes in Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia in response to what Islamabad described as the cross-border attack by the Afghan Taliban.

The 2,611-km-long border between Pakistan and Afghanistan is known as the Durand Line, which Kabul has not formally recognised. "Our patience has run out. Now there is an open war between us...Now it will be 'Dama Dam Mast Qalandar'.

Pakistan’s army did not come from across the seas. We are your neighbours; we know your ins and outs,” Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said in a post on X. His comments came hours after Pakistani forces launched attacks on multiple locations in Afghanistan under ‘Operation Ghazab lil Haq’ late Thursday night in response to what it claimed was “unprovoked firing” from across the border.

‘Dama Dam Mast Qalandar’ refers to a spiritual song associated with the Sindhi sufi saint Lal Shehbaz Qalandar. The phrase literally means “every breath is ecstasy of Qalandar’, but in common parlance, it refers to acting impulsively without considering the consequences.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement that 55 soldiers of Pakistan’s military regime were killed in the retaliatory operations by Afghan forces along the Durand Line, Tolo News reported.

It added that during the operations, two headquarters and 19 check posts of the military regime were captured by Afghan forces.