BAJAUR: Two children and a woman were killed while three others were injured when mortar shells fired from across the Afghan border hit a house in the Kitkot village of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur district on Wednesday night, security sources said.

The sources held the Afghan Taliban responsible for the firing, terming it an act of unprovoked aggression.

They said the Afghan Taliban had been trying to get a formation of Fitna al Khawarij to infiltrate into Pakistan during the past few days. But the attempts were foiled due to timely action by the army, the sources said, adding that the Afghan Taliban then resorted to targeting the civilian population in Pakistan.

Fitna al Khawarij is a term that the state has designated for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban (TTP).

According to security sources, the gun position from where the mortar shells were fired had been destroyed in retaliatory action by the army.

They said that all posts of the Afghan Taliban near Bajaur were being targeted in the retaliatory action, during which heavy loss of life had also been reported on the other side.

The incident has taken place as Pakistan continues Operation Ghazab lil-Haq. It was lau­nched on the night of Feb 26, following unprovoked cross-border attacks by the Afghan Taliban.

There has been a resurgence in terrorism in Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021. Islamabad has repeatedly urged Taliban to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries on Afghan soil, particularly those linked to the banned TTP. Officials say those appeals have gone unheeded.

On April 8, Pakistan and Afghanistan had agreed to avoid any escalation in their armed conflict during talks hosted by China.

Since Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq against terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan, diplomatic contact between the two sides had largely ceased.

The talks in China were held under a trilateral mechanism as tensions between Islamabad and Kabul remain elevated following recent cross-border security developments.

On April 2, FO spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said during a weekly briefing that while Pakistan was holding talks with Afghanistan to end the conflict, Kabul must “demonstrate visible and verifiable actions”.

He said Pakistan had sent the delegation to China “in line with its consistent position and longstanding practice of supporting a credible process that can lead to [a] durable solution … to stop border terrorism from Afghanistan”.

“Our participation is a reiteration of our core concerns,” he stated. “The burden of real process, however, lies with Afghanistan, which must demonstrate visible and verifiable actions against terrorist groups using Afghan soil against Pakistan.”