By Our Correspondent

KABUL, Afghanistan - On a cold Saturday night, the quiet of Behsud district in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan was shattered by the roar of fighter jets.

According to Pakistani and Afghan accounts, airstrikes targeted multiple locations across the province - part of what Islamabad described as a major operation against militants of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Yet at the center of controversy is a single house, where the Afghan Taliban accused Pakistan of targeting civilians, killing more than a dozen people.

Local Taliban officials said the strikes hit the home of 80-year-old Shahabuddin, killing 16 members of his extended family. Among the dead were four girls, three adult men, and eight boys between the ages of one and 15. Shahabuddin himself was also killed.

Five others, including women, were injured. However, UNAMA said that 13 people were killed and seven others injured. 

Afghan state media and Taliban spokespersons showcased the destruction of this house to highlight what they said were civilian casualties. Select foreign media invited to Behsud were shown the rubble and grieving relatives.

However, this house was only one of at least seven reported strike locations in Nangarhar, Khost and Paktika provinces that night.
Journalists and local residents were initially barred from visiting the other sites. Access was granted later, but only after bodies had reportedly been removed - and filming remained restricted.

- Civilian or TTP family?

Cross-border connections complicate the story of the Behsud household. Residents said the family had migrated from Pakistan’s Mohmand district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa some years ago and settled on the outskirts of Behsud.

Three young men from the family - identified locally as Sharakatullah, Nazakatullah, and a man known as “Mohmandi” - were said to have links to the TTP’s Jamaat-ul-Ahrar faction, also referred to as the “Mohmand Taliban.” Two of them had reportedly returned home the evening of the strike.

A local resident, Noor Mohammad, said he could not confirm whether the men were affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban or Afghan Taliban, but noted: “They rarely came home, and whenever I saw them, they were armed.”

Another villager, speaking anonymously, said many TTP families from Pakistan’s tribal districts now live in Behsud and the nearby Khogyani area. He said at least one location was also targeted on Saturday night by Pakistan in the Khogyani area.

According to him, dozens of TTP commanders and families of militants reside in the area, with even some local Afghan Taliban officials also regularly visiting their homes.

When asked about alleged TTP links within the Behsud household, Taliban Interior Ministry spokesperson Abdul Mateen Qani declined to comment. Nangarhar police spokesperson Syed Tayyab Hamad also refused to discuss the matter.

- How many militants killed in Pakistani airstrikes?

Islamabad maintains the strikes targeted militant hideouts linked to cross-border attacks and claims more than 80 militants were killed.
The Afghan Taliban, however, insists that only civilians died and has not provided details about the other targeted sites.

Local Afghan journalists offered a third account, suggesting that nearly 100 Pakistani Taliban fighters and around 13 civilians may have been killed - though these figures remain unverified.

- Strikes in Paktika

In the Barmal district of Paktika province, Pakistan, a madrassa was reportedly targeted, described as a center for Waziristan Taliban fighters. Residents said an iftar gathering for fighters was held that evening, with many staying overnight.

When locals were later allowed to approach the site, the building was destroyed, but no bodies were visible - fueling further speculation about the scale of casualties and who removed the bodies at night from the destroyed site. Taliban officials in Kabul are also unable to respond to this question. 

The airstrikes underscore rising tensions between Islamabad and Kabul over TTP's presence in Afghan territory since the Afghan Taliban’s return to power in 2021. Pakistan accuses Kabul of providing a haven to militants; Afghan authorities deny the claim, insisting their soil is not used against any country.

For international observers, the events in Behsud and beyond reveal the murky reality of modern cross-border militancy - intertwined families, disputed affiliations, restricted access to strike sites, and sharply conflicting casualty counts.

In the rubble of one house lies not only a human tragedy but also a deeper question - have Afghanistan’s eastern borderlands once again become the fault line of a widening regional conflict?

Analysts say the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has pushed the Afghan Taliban into a disastrous position, severely straining Kabul’s relations with Islamabad. They warn that the fallout is increasingly affecting civilians living along both sides of the Pakistan–Afghanistan border.