Pakistan, Feb 27: After a sharp escalation in cross-border fighting, Pakistan has declared "open war" against Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities.

The escalation came after Pakistan bombed Afghanistan's Kabul and Kandahar on Friday, hours after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops in what the Taliban government said was retaliation for deadly airstrikes earlier this week.

Taking to the Twitter handle, Defence minister Khawaja Asif said: " "Our patience has reached its limit."

Speaking at a press briefing, the Pakistani minister accused the Taliban of betraying expectations of peace after NATO’s withdrawal, alleging that Afghanistan had become “a colony of India.”

He condemned the Taliban for depriving citizens of basic rights, particularly women, and warned that Pakistan would respond decisively to aggression. “Now it is open war between us and you,” he said, invoking the phrase “Dama Dam Mast Qalandar” as a rallying cry.

In response, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid announced “wide-ranging retaliatory operations” against Pakistani troop positions in Kandahar and Helmand provinces.

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Afghan officials claimed dozens of Pakistani soldiers were killed and several captured, saying the attacks were triggered by Pakistani strikes that caused civilian casualties earlier in the week.

Pakistan’s information ministry countered that Afghan forces had “opened unprovoked fire on multiple locations” in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, prompting what it described as an “immediate and effective” counter-response.

Islamabad insists its earlier airstrikes targeted militants, though the UN mission in Afghanistan reported at least 13 civilian deaths in Nangarhar and Paktika.

Relations between the neighbours have plunged in recent months with land crossings along the 2,611km-long (1,622-mile-long) border known as the Durand Line largely shut since deadly fighting in October killed more than 70 people on both sides.