Fierce clashes have erupted along the Pakistani-Afghan border, whereupon Pakistan's security forces have delivered an "immediate and effective response" to unprovoked aggression by the Afghan Taliban across multiple sectors of the international border. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting confirmed late Thursday that Taliban regime forces initiated "unprovoked fire" at several locations along the Pakistan–Afghanistan border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Pakistani security forces responded with force, destroying multiple Taliban checkposts and military equipment in sectors including Chitral, Khyber, Mohmand, Kurram and Bajaur.
Pakistan's Forces Inflict Heavy Losses
Security sources confirmed that Pakistan's counterattacks successfully destroyed Afghan Taliban hideouts and checkposts across the border from multiple sectors, including Chitral, Bajaur, Tirah Khyber, and Mohmand district. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry reported that Taliban advances were thwarted across all sectors, with multiple Afghan checkposts and military equipment destroyed. Crucially, Prime Minister's spokesperson for foreign media Mosharraf Zaidi confirmed that no Pakistani posts were captured or damaged, and that no Pakistani soldiers were captured or martyred, dismissing any contrary claims as "little more than the fantasy of India's proxies in Afghanistan".
Pakistan's Precision Strikes on Terrorist Sanctuaries
The border clashes come less than a week after Pakistan carried out intelligence-based precision airstrikes against terrorist camps and hideouts in Afghanistan's Nangarhar and Paktika provinces, targeting "Fitna al-Khawarij", the term Pakistan uses for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its affiliates. The strikes were conducted in response to a series of terrorist attacks inside Pakistan, including a devastating suicide bombing at an Islamabad Imambargah and multiple attacks in Bannu and Bajaur. Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry informed the Senate that over 100 Khawarij were killed in the retaliatory strikes, emphasizing that Pakistan acted after the Taliban administration repeatedly failed to prevent terrorists from using Afghan soil to carry out attacks inside Pakistan despite credible evidence being shared.
The TTP Threat
Pakistan has repeatedly urged the Taliban administration to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries on Afghan soil, particularly those linked to the TTP, which Islamabad holds responsible for numerous deadly attacks inside Pakistan. A United Nations Security Council report has confirmed that the TTP enjoys preferential treatment among terrorist groups operating from Afghanistan under the Taliban regime, heightening concerns about the outfit's potential to pose an extra-regional threat. Despite several rounds of negotiations mediated by Qatar and Turkey following deadly clashes in October 2025, the Taliban authorities have failed to take meaningful action against militant groups using Afghan territory, leaving Pakistan with no choice but to defend itself.
International Dimensions
The escalating tensions have drawn international attention, with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) reporting civilian casualties from the Pakistani airstrikes, though Islamabad maintains that its strikes were precisely targeted at terrorist hideouts. Pakistan's leadership, including President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, has repeatedly called on Kabul to address the issue for the sake of peace, warning that the Taliban regime's policies have created conditions "similar to or worse than pre-9/11".