Pakistan—The Escalating Cycle of Afghan Airstrikes

Pakistani soldiers - again in conflict with Afghanistan. Foto: Ahmed Bin Mazhar / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA 3.0

(Théo Bornier) – On June 10, 2026, Pakistani airstrikes killed at least thirteen civilians in Afghanistan, according to eyewitness accounts gathered in the affected eastern provinces. Less than three weeks later, on June 29, Pakistan announced a new series of bombings in the east of the country, bringing the total death toll to several dozen. The officially stated targets are bases of the Taliban, the armed movement carrying out cross-border attacks from Afghan territory. But the images and eyewitness accounts gathered show villages reduced to ashes and families fleeing. The bombs do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Pakistan justifies its operations in the name of the “right to self-defense,” citing a surge in attacks on its territory. In Pakistan’s view, the Afghan Taliban, in power since August 2021, bear direct responsibility for serving as a safe haven for these groups. The authorities in Kabul vehemently reject these accusations and have recalled their diplomatic representatives in protest. The Taliban regime has labeled the strikes “war crimes” and demanded an immediate ceasefire, despite calls for a truce from the international community. The Durand Line, never recognized by Kabul, remains the epicenter of a historic rivalry that the Taliban’s rise to power has only exacerbated.

Against this backdrop of growing instability, the European Union’s decision to facilitate deportations to Afghanistan appears all the more problematic. Meeting under the Polish presidency of the Council, member states reached a framework agreement with the Taliban enabling the organization of collective flights for Afghan nationals whose asylum claims had been rejected.

Several major European cities—including Rome, Vienna, and The Hague—have made firm commitments to accelerate these forced returns, despite the lack of formal recognition of the Taliban and damning reports from humanitarian organizations regarding the human rights situation in Afghanistan.

Sending civilians back to a country being bombed by its immediate neighbor—and ruled by a regime that oppresses women and minorities—raises legal and ethical questions that European governments struggle to evade. Afghanistan thus finds itself caught in a vice: bombs falling in the east, intensifying repression at home, and European borders closing to those fleeing. The humanitarian crisis facing Afghans—whether they have found refuge in Europe or remain exposed to bombardment in their homeland—demands coherent responses rooted in international law and the protection of vulnerable populations, rather than in electoral calculations driving increasingly restrictive migration policies.