Kabul/Islamabad: Afghan security forces attacked Pakistani border posts late on Saturday in response to what the Taliban government called repeated violations of its territory and airspace, underscoring deepening security tensions between the neighbours.
The Taliban government’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said Afghan forces have captured 25 Pakistani army posts, 58 soldiers have been killed, and 30 others wounded. Several unconfirmed social media posts, accompanied by purported visuals, claimed that an aircraft belonging to the Pakistani military was shot down by the Afghan Taliban.
“The situation on all official borders and de facto lines of Afghanistan is under complete control, and illegal activities have been largely prevented,” Mujahid told a press conference in Kabul. There was no immediate confirmation from Pakistan about casualties.
However, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned what he called as “provocations” by Afghanistan and vowed a “strong” response, while Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi warned that Kabul would be given a “befitting reply like India,” a reference to the crisis earlier this year that saw the two nuclear-armed rivals step closer to war.
The cross-border attacks come after Afghan authorities accused Pakistan of bombing the capital Kabul, and a market in the country’s east earlier this week. Pakistan did not claim responsibility for the assault.
The Taliban government’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday morning its forces had conducted “retaliatory and successful operations” along the border. Defence ministry spokesman Enayat Khowarazm told AFP the operations had ended at midnight.
Taliban officials from Kunar, Nangarhar, Paktia, Khost, and Helmand provinces — all located on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan — confirmed of the clashes.
“This evening, Taliban forces began using weapons. We fired first light and then heavy artillery at four points along the border,” a senior official in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, bordering Afghanistan, told AFP.
“Pakistani forces responded with heavy fire and shot down three Afghan quadcopters suspected of carrying explosives,” he continued.
A senior Pakistani security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said Afghan forces opened fire in several northwestern border areas in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including the districts of Chitral, Bajaur, Mohmand, Angoor Adda and Kurram. The official also said troops responded with heavy weaponry near Tirah in Khyber district and across the frontier in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province.
A second Pakistani security official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said at least one person was killed and another wounded when a mortar shell fired from the Afghan side landed in Tiri village, Kurram district.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called on his country’s neighbours “to exercise restraint”, while Qatar’s Foreign Ministry expressed concern over the escalations and the potential repercussions for the security and stability of the region.
It urged both sides to prioritize “dialogue, diplomacy and restraint.”
The Tokham border crossing, one of two main trade routes between the two countries, did not open on Sunday at its usual time of 8 am. The two countries share a 2,611-kilometer (1,622-mile) border known as the Duran Line, but Afghanistan has never recognized it.
Pakistan accuses Afghan authorities of harboring members of the banned group Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. Islamabad says the group carries out deadly attacks inside Pakistan, but Kabul denies the charge, saying it does not allow its territory to be used against other countries.
The TTP, trained in combat in Afghanistan and claiming to share the same ideology as the Afghan Taliban, is accused by Islamabad of having killed hundreds of its soldiers since 2021.
“If the opposing side again violates Afghanistan’s territorial integrity, our armed forces are fully prepared to defend the nation’s borders and will deliver a strong response,” the ministry added.
State-run media, RTA, said the “revenge operation” had captured three Pakistani military posts, resulting in the deaths of 15 soldiers in an area bordering southern Helmand province.
In recent months, TTP militants have intensified their campaign of violence against Pakistani security forces in the mountainous areas bordering Afghanistan.
Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to expel militants who use Afghan territory to launch attacks on Pakistan, an accusation denied by authorities in Kabul. The TTP and its affiliates are behind most of the violence — largely directed at security forces.
Earlier this year, a UN report said the TTP “receive substantial logistical and operational support from the de facto authorities”, referring to the Taliban government in Kabul.
Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told parliament on Thursday that several efforts to convince the Afghan Taliban to stop backing the TTP had failed.
“We will not tolerate this any longer,” Asif said. “United, we must respond to those facilitating them, whether the hideouts are on our soil or Afghan soil.”
Earlier Saturday, the TTP claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in several districts in northwest Pakistan that killed 20 security officials and three civilians.
This comes on the same day as Pakistan summoned the Afghan ambassador to convey its “strong reservations” over the India-Afghanistan joint statement issued in New Delhi a day earlier.
Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, who landed in New Delhi on Thursday, is on a six-day visit to India. The Foreign Office (FO) in a statement said the Additional Foreign Secretary (West Asia & Afghanistan) conveyed Pakistan’s “strong reservations” to the Afghan envoy regarding references made to Jammu and Kashmir in the joint statement.
“It was conveyed that the reference to Jammu and Kashmir as part of India is in clear violation of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions…,” the Foreign Office said.
According to the joint statement, Afghanistan has strongly condemned the terrorist attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir in April and expressed condolences and solidarity with the people and the Government of India.
Both sides unequivocally condemned all acts of terrorism emanating from regional countries as they underscored the importance of promoting peace, stability, and mutual trust in the region.
Islamabad also rejected Muttaqi’s assertion that terrorism is an internal issue of Pakistan. The statement emphasised that shifting responsibility for controlling terrorism onto Pakistan could not absolve the Afghan Interim Government of its obligations to ensure regional peace and stability.
Highlighting Pakistan’s long-standing hospitality, the FO said the country had hosted nearly four million Afghans for over four decades. With peace returning to Afghanistan, Pakistan reiterated that unauthorised Afghan nationals residing in the country should return home.
“Like all other countries, Pakistan has the right to regulate the presence of foreign nationals residing inside its territory,” it said, adding that Islamabad continued to issue medical and study visas to Afghan citizens “in the spirit of Islamic brotherhood and good neighbourly relations.”
FO said Pakistan is desirous of seeing a peaceful, stable, regionally connected and prosperous Afghanistan. Reaffirming its desire for a peaceful, stable, and prosperous Afghanistan, the FO said Pakistan had extended trade, economic, and connectivity facilitation to promote socio-economic cooperation between the two nations.
However, it stressed that Pakistan also had a duty to ensure the safety of its people and expected the Afghan government to take “concrete measures” to prevent its territory from being used by terrorist elements against Pakistan.
