Pakistani security forces on Sunday carried out a ground operation and "calibrated strikes" along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border against militant hideouts, killing 29, officials have said.
Information minister, Attaullah Tarar, stated on X that the operation was launched in response to multiple militant attacks across the country.
There was no immediate response from Afghanistan.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks targeting police and security forces in recent years, with authorities blaming the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and allied militant groups for most of the violence.
The action comes a day after militants armed with guns and explosives targeted the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in the southern port city of Karachi, killing three soldiers.
Security forces killed three attackers and arrested another assailant, whom the military identified as an injured Afghan national.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack in a statement on Saturday night.
Mr Tarar said Pakistan’s latest operation along the Afghan border targeted hideouts and safe havens of the Pakistani Taliban.
The Pakistani Taliban are a separate militant group from the Afghan Taliban, although the two are allies. The Afghan Taliban returned to power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.
The latest operations are likely to further strain already tense relations between Islamabad and Kabul.
Sunday’s cross-border strikes and ground operation came less than three weeks after Pakistan's military launched airstrikes on what it said were militant hideouts in Afghanistan. They ended about a month of relative calm following what Islamabad had described as an “open war” between the neighbouring countries, despite international efforts to broker a lasting peace.
The escalation follows months of tit-for-tat military action between the two countries.
Hundreds of people have been killed in cross-border fighting since February, when Afghanistan launched retaliatory strikes after Pakistan carried out airstrikes inside Afghan territory.
Multiple rounds of internationally mediated peace talks have failed to secure a lasting ceasefire. China also hosted the two sides in April and Beijing later said Pakistan and Afghanistan had agreed not to escalate their conflict and to explore a solution.
Pakistan since last year has carried out multiple strikes along the border and inside Afghanistan, targeting alleged hideouts of TTP and other militants. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Afghan Taliban government of harbouring militants who carry out deadly attacks inside Pakistan, especially the TTP. Kabul denies the charge.
Strikes are the latest in cross-border violence between neighbours.
Read MoreThree rangers and as many militants killed in attack on Pakistan paramilitary camp
EU faces growing backlash after Taliban delegation’s visit to Brussels
French woman rescued after ‘being held captive by husband for 12 years’ in Pakistan
