Kabul was shaken by two strong explosions followed by heavy bursts of automatic gunfire late on Thursday, with several residents saying they heard a fighter jet flying over the city. Intelligence sources said the explosions were part of a targeted aerial strike on Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Noor Wali Mehsud, who was believed to be operating from a TTP and al-Qaeda safehouse in eastern Kabul.

Sources confirmed that the strike successfully hit the compound. However, CNN-News18 obtained a voice message from Noor Wali Mehsud in which he claimed that he was safe and currently in Pakistan, though he acknowledged that his son was killed in the attack. The fact that a high-value Pakistani militant was targeted suggested a covert cross-border operation. The timing of the incident, just two days after Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif accused Afghanistan of providing shelter to terrorists, pointed strongly to a possible retaliatory strike either carried out by Pakistan itself or by another power with Islamabad’s intelligence and technical backing.

Sources described the attack as extremely provocative, indicating Pakistan’s readiness to strike inside Kabul for the first time since the Taliban took control in 2021. With the Taliban lacking effective air defence and the former Afghan Air Force no longer functional, the attack—reportedly involving Pakistani-made aircraft supported by external experts—was seen by Taliban-linked sources as a serious breach of Afghanistan’s sovereignty.

The explosions came as Afghanistan’s Interim Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi is visiting India for eight days, during which he is expected to meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval for separate discussions.

Analysts warned that the strike could spark turmoil within the TTP’s leadership, which is already divided between factions loyal to Kabul and Rawalpindi. They cautioned that internal conflict and a power struggle within the group could spill over into Afghanistan’s border provinces of Kunar, Nangarhar, and Paktika, adding new pressure to the already strained relationship between Pakistan and the Taliban-led Afghan government.