New Delhi: Afghanistan’s Taliban government has said its forces killed at least 58 Pakistani soldiers in cross-border clashes late Saturday, following Pakistani airstrikes that struck several Afghan provinces, including capital Kabul.
Mawlawi Mohammad Qasim Riaz, the spokesperson for Helmand’s provincial administration, told reporters that the “retaliatory operations” were launched after Islamabad’s “violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty.” The operations, he said, concluded around midnight.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed that Afghan forces had seized 25 Pakistani army outposts, killing 58 soldiers and injuring 30 others. The clashes, which erupted along multiple stretches of the 2,640-kilometer Durand Line, mark one of the most serious escalations between the two countries since the Taliban seized power in 2021.
Afghan officials said fighting was concentrated in the southern Helmand province, where Taliban forces reportedly overran three Pakistani military outposts and seized weapons and ammunition.
On Sunday, Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan who is visiting Delhi, said Afghanistan has paused the military action. “We achieved our military objectives last night, and our friends, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, have expressed that this conflict should come to an end, so we have paused it from our side for the time being,” he told a press conference.
In a statement to the AFP, Taliban Defence Ministry spokesman Enayat Khowarazm said, “If the opposing side violates Afghanistan’s territory again, our armed forces are ready to defend our country and will respond firmly.”
Pakistan’s military, in response, said Sunday it carried out a series of “decisive strikes” against Afghan forces and militants overnight, after what it described as “unprovoked firing” from across the border, Express Tribune reported.
Videos released by the Pakistani military appeared to show the destruction of several Afghan posts, including the Jandusar checkpoint, the report further said. Pakistani forces also claimed to have targeted the Taliban’s Manjuba and Darani Camp battalion headquarters. The report stated that at least 19 Afghan posts “used to shelter or assist militants” were struck.
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Retaliation for airstrikes
The clashes came just two days after three explosions rocked Afghanistan, two in Kabul and one in the southeastern province of Paktika. The Taliban accused Pakistan of conducting airstrikes that targeted Afghan soil, including a civilian market in Paktika.
Pakistani officials have not confirmed responsibility for Thursday’s strikes, but security sources in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said their forces responded to “provocations” along the frontier. “We fired first light and then heavy artillery at four points along the border,” one official told AFP, claiming that Pakistani troops shot down three Afghan quadcopters suspected of carrying explosives.
Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, told reporters Friday that Islamabad “will continue to take whatever steps are necessary” to protect its citizens. “Our demand to Afghanistan is clear: your soil must not be used for terrorism against Pakistan,” he said.
The Taliban-run Ministry of Defence issued a late-night statement Saturday saying it would now “stop retaliatory actions” and urged Pakistan to do the same. However, shelling reportedly continued across parts of the border into early Sunday.
By Sunday morning, reports indicated the death toll among Pakistani soldiers had risen to at least 18, with several captured. Taliban officials said their forces had launched coordinated operations across seven provinces bordering Pakistan, including Kandahar, Zabul, Paktika, Paktia, Khost, Nangarhar, and Kunar.
The clashes prompted the closure of the Torkham border crossing, a trade and transit route Sunday.
Longstanding frictions
The Durand Line, a 2,640-kilometre frontier dividing Afghanistan from Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and Gilgit-Baltistan regions, is often described as one of the world’s most volatile borders.
Though internationally recognised as Pakistan’s western boundary, Afghanistan has never formally accepted it.
Also, Islamabad has for years accused Kabul of allowing the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — an ideological ally of the Afghan Taliban — to operate from Afghan territory. Since 2021, the TTP has killed hundreds of Pakistani security personnel in cross-border attacks, according to Pakistani officials.
A United Nations report earlier this year said the TTP “receives substantial logistical and operational support from the de facto authorities”, a veiled reference to the Taliban government in Kabul. Afghan officials deny the charge, insisting that insurgency in Pakistan is “its own internal problem”.
Pakistan’s Defence Minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, told Parliament last week that diplomatic efforts to persuade the Afghan Taliban to curb the TTP had failed. The TTP claimed responsibility over the weekend for coordinated attacks in northwest Pakistan that killed 20 security personnel and three civilians.
Diplomatic strain
In recent months, Islamabad and Kabul appeared to be seeking a diplomatic thaw. Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar visited Kabul in April for talks facilitated in part by China. The meetings led to upgraded diplomatic ties and a temporary stop in violence.
However, as clashes raged along the border, Islamabad summoned Afghanistan’s ambassador to protest a joint India-Afghanistan statement issued in New Delhi last week.
At a press conference in New Delhi Friday, Muttaqi condemned a recent explosion in Kabul, attributing blame to Pakistan. “Each country should resolve its own problems internally,” he said.
Muttaqi also asserted that Afghanistan was free of terrorist groups. “If other countries achieve peace as we have in Afghanistan, the entire region will be peaceful. Over the past eight months, not a single incident has occurred on Afghan soil, that is the proof we present,” he claimed.
In response, Pakistan’s Foreign Office said it had conveyed its “strong reservations” over aspects of the India-Afghanistan joint statement to the Afghan ambassador in Islamabad through the Additional Foreign Secretary for West Asia and Afghanistan.
The FO said in its statement Saturday, “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 and the legal status of Jammu and Kashmir.”
“Pakistan also strongly rejected the Afghan Acting Foreign Minister’s assertion that terrorism is Pakistan’s internal problem. Pakistan has repeatedly shared details regarding the presence of Fitna-e-Khawarij and Fitna-e-Hindustar terrorist elements operating from Afghan soil against Pakistan with support from elements within Afghanistan,” it added.
Islamabad also emphasised that it had hosted nearly four million Afghan refugees for decades, but now expected “unauthorised Afghan nationals” to return home, citing its sovereign right to regulate foreign residents.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar both had issued statements expressing concern over the escalating violence and urged “dialogue and restraint.” Riyadh called on both sides to act with “wisdom” to avoid further bloodshed, while Doha warned that the clashes could have “serious repercussions” for regional stability.
At a press conference Sunday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid accused Pakistan of harboring ISIS-K (Daesh) operatives, claiming the group’s origins trace to Pakistan’s Orakzai region under a Pakistani leader, Sa’id Khan.
He alleged that after being defeated in Afghanistan, ISIS militants fled to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, where they rebuilt bases and recruited fighters globally. Mujahid said terror attacks in Tehran, Moscow, and across Afghanistan including on scholars, mosques, a temple in Kabul and officials were planned from these Pakistani hideouts. He asserted that ISIS leaders, including Shahab al-Muhajir, currently live in Pakistan. He demanded their handover or expulsion.
“Refrain from negative behavior, violation of sovereignty, and other provocative actions against Afghanistan, otherwise these actions will naturally have very negative and undesirable consequences”, he warned Pakistan.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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