One Month of Pakistani Airstrikes on Afghanistan Sees Halt in TTP Attacks in Pakistan

Pakistan began military airstrikes on Afghanistan one month ago, triggering what its defense minister described as an "open war." Since then, no deadly suicide attacks or major operations by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have occurred in Pakistani cities.

The last major attack inside Pakistan took place on 24 February 2026 at the Dajal checkpoint on the border between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. A suicide bomber killed two police officers and wounded four others. Ansar al-Islam, linked to the Gul Bahadur branch of the TTP, claimed responsibility.

Following that incident, Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif announced that an open war had begun. The Pakistani Air Force then conducted extensive strikes under Operation Ghazab lillah across multiple Afghan provinces, including Kabul, Kandahar, Panjshir, Parwan, Kapisa, Nangarhar, Laghman, Khost, Paktia, Paktika, Nuristan, Herat and Balkh.

The Taliban reported that a strike on a drug addiction treatment center in eastern Kabul killed at least 408 people and wounded 250. The United Nations has stated that more than 100,000 people have been displaced in the past month. Small-scale Taliban drone attacks in Pakistan have caused no significant casualties, while clashes continue along the Durand Line.

Ahmad Massoud, leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, said the Taliban's policy of sheltering the TTP and more than 20 other terrorist groups had directly caused the foreign airstrikes. He compared the situation to the Taliban's earlier harboring of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, which led to American attacks, but stressed that hatred of the Taliban should not equate to support for bombing.

A military expert in Kabul said the Taliban had prompted Pakistan to shift the conflict from Islamabad to Kabul. The Diplomat magazine noted a noticeable decrease in TTP attacks inside Pakistan since the operation began. This period of relative calm in Pakistan follows four years of severe insecurity, with the country recently topping the Global Terrorism Index compiled by the Institute for Economics and Peace. The index linked the rise in terrorism to the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan in 2021.