KABUL, Afghanistan: The Afghan Taliban authorities have restricted media and civilian access to areas hit by Pakistani air strikes on Sunday, according to local residents, raising questions about the presence of terror groups’ sanctuaries in Afghanistan.
Pakistan says it carried out pre-dawn precision strikes on Sunday targeting terror hideouts in eastern Afghanistan.
Kabul has blocked media access and reporting from the targeted seven terrorist camps, according to local residents as cited by various media outlets.
The South Asia Times reported that Afghan authorities blocked both local media and civilians from entering the targeted areas.
It said Afghan Taliban controlled media outlets aired footage only from a destroyed site in Behsud district and did not publish reports from other locations targeted in the precision strikes.
Residents in Paktika, Khost and Nangarhar provinces said Taliban forces had cordoned off several areas after the strikes.
Some locals told media outlets that terrorists had been living in those areas for years and were receiving support from the Taliban authorities.
The restrictions have raised questions over the existence of terror sanctuaries on Afghan soil and the full extent of the damage to terror infrastructure.
Pakistan says over 100 terrorists killed
In Islamabad, Pakistan’s Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, told the Senate on Monday that the Pakistan Air Force had conducted a series of “precise, retaliatory” air strikes inside Afghanistan.
He said more than 100 terrorists were killed in the intelligence-based operation as a response to cross-border terror attacks.
The strikes targeted terrorists’ hideouts and training facilities of “Fitna al-Khawarij”, a term it uses for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terror group.
Minister Chaudhry said the operation was a direct response to the Afghan Taliban regime’s failure to prevent Afghan territory being used to launch terror attacks against Pakistan.
“The operation was a necessity, not a choice,” he told the upper house of parliament.
He said Pakistan had repeatedly shared “irrefutable, credible evidence” with Kabul about terror groups operating from Afghan soil but received an ineffective response.
Security sources said the strikes targeted terror camps in Khost and Kunar provinces.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said seven terror hideouts linked to the TTP and Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISKP) were hit in Nangarhar, Paktika and Khost.
Officials described the action as a “limited, proportionate and retributive response” to recent suicide bombings in Islamabad, Bajaur and Bannu during Ramadan.
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Pakistani authorities rejected Afghan claims of civilian casualties and said the operation was based on selective targeting of terror infrastructure.
Media blackout
Afghan authorities have not provided detailed casualty figures. The reported restrictions on access have made independent verification difficult.
Experts cited in regional reporting said the lack of media access fuelled suspicions that the Taliban were attempting to conceal the presence of terror groups on Afghan soil.
Pakistan has long accused the Afghan Taliban of allowing anti-Pakistan terror groups to operate from Afghan territory.
UN report flags terror hideout presence
Meanwhile, international concern over terrorist activity in Afghanistan has been highlighted in reporting by The Diplomat magazine, which cited findings from the United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team.
According to the UN report referenced by the magazine, the Taliban continue to allow al-Qaeda and affiliated terror groups, including the TTP, to operate inside Afghanistan.
The monitoring team said al-Qaeda acts as a “service provider” to other terrorist organisations and maintains religious schools in eastern and north-eastern provinces where ideology is instilled in children and recruits are trained.
The report estimated that around 6,000 TTP fighters are based in Afghanistan.
It said the TTP carried out more than 600 terror attacks in Pakistan in 2025, mainly targeting military and government sites, causing dozens of deaths and many injuries.
The UN team said the Islamic State’s Khorasan group remains resilient and poses a threat both inside and beyond Afghanistan.
