Cross-Border Attacks Between Pakistan and Afghanistan Kill at Least 11, Injure Over 140 in Kunar and Border Areas

Pakistani jet and drone attacks struck the Afghan province of Kunar, killing at least seven people and injuring 75, including students and a professor at Kunar University. Multiple sources confirmed the casualties from the attacks, with the Taliban government specifying that 30 of the injured were university students.

A professor at Kunar University told the BBC he had heard terrifying explosions across the university campus.

A statement from Afghanistan's higher education ministry said the university's buildings and surroundings had suffered extensive damage. Pakistan's information ministry denied targeting the university and residential areas, stating that reports of such strikes were fake.

Separately, mortar and rocket attacks launched by Pakistan against Afghanistan killed four people and injured 70 on April 27, according to Afghan officials.

The Afghan Taliban's deputy spokesperson stated the attacks killed four and injured 70 in a post on X. Pakistan dismissed the claims of mortar and rocket attacks as a blatant lie. The recent violence follows a fragile ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan that had largely held over the past few weeks before April 27.

Chinese mediation resulted in talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Urumqi in early April. Pakistan has stated that its air strikes target militant hideouts in Afghanistan. Reports of the Kunar attacks come several weeks after a Pakistani air strike on a drug rehabilitation centre in the Afghan capital Kabul which, according to the UN, is now known to have killed 269 people.

Hundreds of people have been killed or injured in cross-border fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent months.