Children Among Dead as Pakistan Airstrikes Hit Afghan Villages

The bombs fell at midnight, and by morning, two governments were at war with each other's version of the truth.

Pakistani warplanes struck seven targets across Nangarhar, Paktika, and Khost in the early hours of Sunday, with Islamabad claiming more than 80 militants killed in what it described as a precise, evidence-based retaliation for a string of devastating suicide bombings on Pakistani soil during Ramadan - including an attack on a mosque in Islamabad that killed 31 worshippers, and repeated strikes on security posts in Bajaur and Bannu. Pakistan had warned for weeks that its patience was exhausted

But in Nangarhar's Bihsud district , the strikes told a different story. Rescuers arrived to find rubble where a house had stood - 18 of its 23 occupants dead, twelve of them children . "They were poor people," local elder Habib Ullah said. "Neither Taliban, nor soldiers. They lived simple village lives." The Afghan Red Crescent confirmed at least 18 civilian deaths, and Afghanistan's Defence Ministry said the strikes hit a mosque, a religious school, and family homes - not militant camps.

Pakistan dismissed all of it as a "false narrative designed to shield terrorists," but the international community was already reacting. India stepped forward and publicly condemned the strikes, calling them an attempt to "externalise Pakistan's internal failures" while reaffirming support for Afghan sovereignty - a pointed intervention that left Islamabad diplomatically isolated at precisely the moment it needed global understanding most.

Afghanistan, meanwhile, summoned Pakistan's ambassador, handed him a formal protest note, and warned that "a necessary and measured response will come" - a threat that, combined with a fresh suicide bombing on Monday killing eleven more Pakistani soldiers, made the prospect of de-escalation feel increasingly remote.

What makes this crisis so dangerous is not just the bloodshed - it is the complete collapse of every diplomatic safety net built to prevent it. Qatar, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia all attempted mediation over recent months. None succeeded. The UN called Monday for immediate restraint, but with both governments hardening under domestic pressure and India now openly aligned with Kabul, nobody appeared to be listening.

The children of Bihsud have been buried. The soldiers of Bajaur have been mourned.