Key Highlights
- India condemned the PAF’s bombing.
- Afghanistan claimed its February 26 cross-border attack was retaliation for Pakistan’s Operation Ghazab-lil-Haq (which reportedly killed 133 Afghan Taliban fighters and injured over 200) — which Pakistan averred was “retaliatory”.
- The reality is that there have been 70 to 80 tit-for-tat attacks by both sides ever since the US-led forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, with tensions peaking after the deadly clash in October 2025.
- The fighting between these two Muslim nations, both largely Sunni, surprises many who believe that both enjoyed a close, symbiotic relationship.
- The reality is that there’s no love lost between the two, with the roots of a festering animosity embedded in the region’s demographics and the Durand Line.
