Afghanistan bombing: What’s Pakistan’s strategy as India-Taliban ties grow?

Pakistani air raids break fragile ceasefire as Islamabad faces pressure on both borders.

Islamabad, Pakistan – In the weeks before the Pakistani military carried out air raids inside Afghanistan over the weekend, violence had been unrelenting.

On February 6, a suicide bomber detonated explosives during Friday prayers at a Shia mosque in the capital, Islamabad, killing at least 36 worshippers and wounding 170 others.

Days later, an explosives-laden vehicle rammed a security post in Bajaur in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing 11 soldiers and a child. The attacker, according to Pakistani authorities, was later identified as an Afghan national.

After the Bajaur attack, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a demarche to the Taliban authorities on February 19, summoning the Afghan deputy head of mission in Islamabad.

But two days later, in the early hours of Saturday, another suicide bomber struck a security convoy in Bannu, also in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing two soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel.