On February 22, 2026, Pakistan Air Force launched "intelligence-based selective" airstrikes on seven targets in Afghanistan's Nangarhar, Paktika and Khowst provinces. Pakistan claimed killing around 80 TTP militants; the news from the ground confirmed killing of high value TTP rank and file. The catalyst for strikes remained the spike in Afghan-based terrorist attacks, including a February 6 bombing at a Shia mosque in Islamabad that killed 31 people.

On February 24, IEA responded by cross-border 'fire' attacks on Pakistan's military posts in Torkham and Tirah sub-sectors. Pakistani forces responded decisively silencing the Taliban guns, as is generally the case with IEA forces, who do not give a good account during pitched engagements. Mosharraf Zaidi, PM Shehbaz Sharif's spokesperson for foreign media, warned responding "immediately and severely" to any further provocations.

Afghanistan-based TTP and other terror groups were also responsible for the attack on Federal Constabulary (FC) convoy in Karak district, the despicable burning of injured FC personnel in ambulance, the killing of a DSP in Shakardara (Kohat) and the Tuesday suicide attack in Bhakkar. This amounts to dangerous and miscalculated escalation by IEA and its protégé forces with serious consequences. That this mayhem occurs in Ramazan points to the un-Islamic and non-Pashtun credentials of the present dispensation in Qandahar, despite their lofty claims. And it had eroded any residual empathy for the impoverished Afghanistan and its hapless refugees in Pakistan. It also has badly damaged the Pashtun cause in Pakistan.

Where do we go from here! Before suggestions, let's recap some pertinent points.........

© The Express Tribune