Afghan families mourn loved ones as border tensions with Pakistan escalate | Articles of Controversy

Bismillah Khan returned to his border village in Afghanistan’s Paktia province earlier this month with a dream: to spend the rest of his life in the house he built with the hard-earned money of 12 years working in the Gulf.

The man in his 50s invested all the money he earned abroad to build a two-story house for his children and grandchildren. But that dream was shattered minutes later when he woke up before dawn on Monday to hear a powerful explosion that rocked Mandikhil village in Chamkani district.

Khan’s house was among dozens of civilian buildings that Afghanistan says were hit by Pakistani insurgents overnight in Paktika, Paktia and Kunar districts on the border between the two countries. The Afghan government said the attacks killed at least 36 people and injured 163 others, most of them women and children.

Pakistan has kept its military “on target” as it strikes militants in three Afghan provinces, saying its air and ground operations have killed 29 militants.

Standing among the piles of stones and mud that until recently made his home, Khan struggles to understand what happened.

“There were only women and children in the house,” he said, his voice breaking. Khan’s wife and daughter were killed in the attack, while 10 other family members were injured.

“I don’t know why our house was targeted.”

But the pain did not end with the first attack.

Hours after the first attack, after people searched the ruins for survivors and rushed the injured to nearby hospitals, another attack broke out.

Residents said rockets landed near civilian groups involved in the rescue operation, causing further injuries.

“We are looking for children and women who are trapped under the barriers,” said Marzia Khan Wali during the second strike. We took the injured people to the car to take them to the hospital when we heard the plane again. Within minutes, the people who were trying to save lives also started to suffer.”

‘Between two fears’

In the village of Jilan in the neighboring province of Paktika, Zarmina, a mother of five, lives next to the ruins of her destroyed house. Her husband and young daughter died in the attack.

“We were sleeping when the bombs fell,” he said, holding a blanket found in the rubble. There was no warning. When I opened my eyes, everything was gone.

“We don’t know anything about politics or military forces,” he added. We are just farmers.

In Kunar province, many families have fled villages near the border, fearing further persecution. Local officials said many people now prefer to sleep in the wild or move away from the border.

“People here live between two fears,” said tribal leader Mera Khan. “Fear of war and fear of losing their homes.”

The latest attacks come amid tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, Pakistan has carried out several cross-border attacks, saying that its forces have fought against militants of the Pakistan Taliban (TTP), whom Islamabad accuses of using Afghan territory as a safe haven to launch terrorist attacks inside Pakistan.

In recent years, Pakistan has seen a sharp increase in terrorist attacks attributed to the TTP, particularly in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, where security forces and armed forces have come under repeated attacks.

Pakistan’s Information Minister, Attaullah Tarar, in a televised statement, said the campaign against terrorism “will continue to eliminate the threat of foreign-sponsored terrorism”.

The Afghan government has strongly condemned the latest attacks, calling them “violations of Afghan rights” and “attacks on innocent civilians”.

The Taliban-led government maintains that it remains committed to the Doha Agreement signed in February 2020 between the United States and the Afghan Taliban to prevent Afghan soil from being used for attacks.

Back in Paktia, Khan says the most important thing now is to find a place to stay for his remaining family.

“I left my country for many years in search of a better future,” he said quietly.

I returned hoping to live in peace, but the war came before I could.