“The entire nation is standing, shoulder to shoulder with the Armed Forces”, Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif later stated in a series of messages published on the social network X, highlighting that Pakistani troops carry out their duties “with national fervor” under the leadership of Marshal Syed Asim Munir.
The Pakistani prime minister insisted that there will be “no compromise in the defense of the beloved motherland and Pakistan will respond firmly” to any incursion.
“Our forces are equipped with professional capabilities, superior training and an effective defensive strategy to face any internal or external challenge,” Sharif said.
The statement by the head of the Government constitutes a political milestone in the escalation of war resulting from the attacks in Islamabad last week against supposed refuges of the insurgent group TTP (Pakistan’s Taliban movement) on Afghan soil.
The Taliban responded to the crisis with a series of attacks on the border between the two countries, coordinated by Kabul on Thursday night, and Islamabad’s subsequent reaction, with the bombing of the Afghan capital and clashes on the Durand Line, the border demarcation.
Pakistan says the Islamabad attacks left 133 Taliban dead and more than 200 injured, while the Afghan Ministry of Defense estimated its own casualties at eight combatants killed and eleven injured, in addition to thirteen civilians affected by the bombings.
The Taliban claim to have killed 55 Pakistani soldiers, have in custody 23 bodies of Pakistani soldiers and an undetermined number of prisoners.
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