Name: Afghanistan promises ‘appropriate response’ after deadly Pakistani strikes
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Searching for survivors after multiple airstrikes hi died out by the Pakistani military.

Afghanistan says women and children are among the dead in Nangarad and Baktika provinces.

Pakistan says it's targeting camps and hideouts of armed groups it blames for a recent wave of attacks, among them the Hariq e Taliban, Pakistan and ISIL affiliates.

The strikes follow a suicide bombing at a Shia mosque in Islamabad that killed dozens of people during Friday prayers.

Other attacks in northwest Pakistan killed security personnel and civilians.

But in Afghanistan, authorities paint another picture.

Defense officials say a religious school and homes were hit.

Witnesses say the bombardment began at around midnight in multiple districts.

Civilians, including women, children and elderly people were killed with great cruelty during this month of Ramadan.

Last night it felt as if judgment day had passed over us.

The escalation comes amid already fragile relations between the neighbors.

A ceasefire was brokered after border confrontations last year.

But diplomatic talks have failed to produce a lasting agreement.

Pakistan has repeatedly urged authorities in Kabul to act against groups that that it says use Afghan territory to plan and launch attacks.

The risk now is this latest bout of violence could further destabilize a region already gripped by mistrust.

Assad Beg Al Jazeera Al Jazeera's NASA Shahdid is in Bashud in Afghanistan which is one of the areas hit in the attacks.

This is in Ningirhara east of Afghanistan.

Today early morning Pakistan air force strike they attacked this house.

There is 17 killed after this attack and still they are searching for six bodies.

Till now they did not find them as what we know.

And also now they are also they said the government of Afghanistan they said also army, a Pakistani army.

They attacked also a place called Burmal which is a center of religious center and there is also some casualties.

Now the Afghanis Ministry of Defense condemned the airstrike.

They said that they carried out by the Pakistani army on civilians area in Ningirhar and Baktika also began province.

Okay, let's speak now to Hamid Hakimi who's a non resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council South Asia center joins us now from Cambridge.

So Pakistan is saying that they carried out intelligence based selective operations on specific groups inside Afghanistan's members of the Pakistan Taliban and isil.

Do we know for sure these armed groups are hiding out and planning these Attacks from inside Afghanistan.

This is a legacy issue for the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The Taliban government, because when they were fighting the United States presence in Afghanistan previously and the former Afghan government with the tacit support and sometimes active support of the Pakistani government at that time, they were based in areas which, where the Pakistani Taliban, the so called ttp, hail from.

So there is a legacy, a history of relationship between the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban.

However, to the extent that we can say for sure that these, these attacks inside Pakistan are planned in the Afghan territory, I think that's contested.

Contested because the attacks are so deep in Pakistani territory that it also begs the question on whether, you know, any actor, insurgent actor would be able to do such an attack without having some kind of logistical and planning mechanisms inside the territory of Pakistan.

So it's at the moment, it looks like a continuation of these tensions between the Afghan government under the Taliban and the Pakistani army in particular, that has been going on for a while.

So what you're saying is whatever way you look at it, it's Pakistani citizens that is carrying out these attacks.

So on that basis then we have to say that it is a failure of Pakistan's domestic security.

Obviously there is definitely a domestic dynamic to the conflict in Pakistan.

It is a, after all, it's the Islamists, the so called insurgents, however you name them, these are the non state actors of who are all Pakistani citizens.

They demand and those demands are pertinent to the domestic politics of Pakistan.

So from that perspective it is a Pakistani domestic issue.

But we can't say also that there is absolutely no relationship between the ttp, the Pakistani Taliban and the Afghan Taliban.

However, to the extent that that is operational in facilitating attacks inside Pakistan, that's the element that is contested and there's no conclusive evidence, at least independently we don't know because the Taliban government in Afghanistan is internationally isolated, as you know, I was going to say, what diplomatic channels are open to them?

Well, barely any except the humanitarian channel, which obviously when these images get broadcast of reportedly women and children being killed.

So that obviously will raise pressure on the humanitarian side, some messaging.

But Pakistan definitely holds militarily and politically the upper hand here, not least with their recent better relationship seemingly with the Trump administration.

So Pakistan is a powerful country militarily compared to Afghanistan and it feels that it can carry out these attacks without much backlash.

Because Taliban are isolated internationally, socio economically they're under pressure and domestically the Taliban government also have challenges.

However, the irony is that the more these attacks continue from Pakistan, this will galvanize support domestically for the Taliban in Afghanistan because the Afghan people do not want to be attacked.

I was just going to say on the basis of that and everything you're saying, how do we now assess the potential for this to escalate further given that the ceasefire agreement.

Well, it now seems to be over, doesn't it?

Well, the ceasefire was shaky from the beginning.

And I think the mediation really needs to kick off.

However, as far as the Afghan Taliban are concerned, they have very limited options to retaliate.

And if any attacks further inside Pakistan is perceived by the Pakistani military as having been planned in Afghanistan by the TTP or other elements, they will unfortunately likely continue to retaliate militarily in the way that we've seen this morning.

So it's really high time and very, very important for the regional mediators to kick in, bring these sites together and de escalate.

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