Fierce fighting has broken out in at least five locations, with multiple soldiers killed, in a flare-up of violence between Pakistani and Afghan forces near the two countries' tense border.
Pakistani security sources near the border region early on October 12 confirmed to RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal that three Pakistani soldiers and one civilian were killed and five soldiers were injured in the fighting and a subsequent response by the Pakistan military.
Some civilians on the Pakistani side of the border were leaving the region for safer locations, according to security sources.
Pakistani sources said several Taliban border posts had been destroyed inside Afghanistan during its retaliatory actions. Casualties on the Afghan side were not immediately known.
“In a prompt and intense response, Pakistani forces effectively targeted several Afghan border posts,” security officials confirmed to Dawn news.
Security sources told Dawnn that Pakistan was using artillery, tanks, and light and heavy weapons in its actions.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers confirmed that their forces carried out “successful retaliatory operations along the Durand Line against the centers of Pakistani security forces, in response to repeated violations of Afghanistan’s airspace and territory. “
The 2,600-kilometer Afghan-Pakistan border is often referred to as the colonial-era Durand Line, which set the international border in 1893.
The Taliban Defense Ministry said the operation ended by midnight local time.
However, Taliban officials in Kunar, Nangarhar, Paktia, Khost, and Helmand Provinces near the Pakistan border said that some clashes were ongoing.
A senior Pakistani official in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province official told AFP that "this evening, Taliban forces began using weapons. We fired first light and then heavy artillery at four points along the border."
The official added that Pakistani forces "shot down three Afghan quadcopters suspected of carrying explosives. Intense fighting continues."
Reports from the border region cannot immediately be verified.
Once allies, the sides have fallen out over the Afghan Taliban's alleged sheltering of the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an extremist group that has waged a deadly insurgency against Islamabad for years.
The Taliban, which returned to power in August 2021 as international troops left Afghanistan, denies it is protecting the TTP inside the country.
On October 9, two senior members of the extremist group were killed in unprecedented Pakistani drone strikes in the Afghan capital, sources told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal, marking a major escalation of tensions between the two side.
The target of the strikes in Kabul late on October 9 was Noor Wali Mehsud, the leader of the TTP, which is also known as the Pakistani Taliban, a Pakistani security official and a member of the TTP said.
It was not clear if Mehsud was killed in the strikes. A TTP source said the militant leader was alive but two “important” members of the group were killed, without disclosing their names.
Following the reported strike, Pakistani media quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Shafqat Ali Khan as saying Islamabad respects Afghanistan's territorial integrity and sovereignty and is ready to discuss and cooperate on terrorism-related challenges.
But he added that Pakistan was committed to taking every step to ensure the safety and well-being of its citizens.
The spokesman did not directly confirm Pakistan's attack on Afghanistan but said the country was protecting its citizens through counterterrorism measures based on intelligence information.
Islamabad also called on Kabul "to stop harboring the Pakistani Taliban on its soil."
Officials from Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar issued calls for "restraint" following the latest outbreak of violence.
Pakistan, with a population of 247 million and a powerful military, also has a tense relationship with fellow nuclear power and neighboring India.
Pakistan forces were put on high alert near the Indian border, raising concerns of a wider conflict involving the two bitter rivals.
The latest violence coincided with a groundbreaking trip to New Delhi by Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi starting on October 9. He is expected to be in India for a week of talks.
Ishaq Atmar, a Germany-based expert on Afghan affairs, told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi that "the timing of the attack could not be a coincidence."
"After Mr. Muttaqi was warmly welcomed by Indian officials, signed agreements, and upgraded diplomatic relations to the embassy level, Pakistan saw this as an opportune time to send a clear message to India, the Taliban government, and other countries" observing regional affairs, he said.
Poverty-stricken Afghanistan, with some 44 million people, has been isolated on the global stage, with only Russia officially recognizing the Taliban as the country's legitimate rulers. The government has been accused of multiple human rights violations, especially against women.
