Clashes erupted along the Pak-Afghan border after Afghan forces opened unprovoked fire at multiple locations in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, prompting a swift and forceful response from the Pakistan Army, which destroyed several Afghan posts and killed dozens of Afghan soldiers and militants, security sources said on Saturday.
According to officials, the coordinated assault originated from across several key sectors, including Angoor Adda, Bajaur, Kurram, Dir, Chitral in K-P, and Baramcha in Balochistan. The firing, the officials claimed, was aimed at facilitating the illegal entry of Khawarij — the state-designated term for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — into Pakistani territory.
“Pakistan Army posts responded immediately and decisively,” security sources said. “The counteroffensive effectively targeted and destroyed multiple Afghan border posts. Dozens of Afghan soldiers and Khawarij were killed in the action.”
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Sources said that following the retaliatory strikes, several Taliban fighters abandoned their positions and fled, leaving behind the bodies of their comrades. “Bodies are scattered, and the posts have been deserted in panic,” one source confirmed.
The cross-border aggression came at a diplomatically sensitive moment, as Afghanistan’s foreign minister is currently on an official visit to India — a move that has led to a source of high concern in Islamabad.
Security sources believe the timing and coordination of the attack — coinciding with reported militant movement along the border — raise serious questions about the role of Afghan forces in facilitating cross-border militancy.
Read: Two officers among 11 army men martyred
As of late Saturday, the Pakistan Army’s retaliatory operations were reported to be continuing in some sectors, with troops on high alert along the western frontier.
Naqvi warns Kabul of retaliation
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi strongly condemned what he described as “unprovoked firing” by Afghan forces on civilian-populated areas inside Pakistan, terming the attacks a clear violation of international law.
“The firing on civilian populations is an open breach of international law,” Naqvi said in a statement, commending Pakistan’s armed forces for what he called an immediate and effective response.
“Pakistan’s brave forces have demonstrated, through a timely and forceful reply, that any provocation will not be tolerated,” he added.
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The interior minister said that Pakistan’s security forces remained on high alert and were responding appropriately to any aggression. “Our forces are alert, and Afghanistan is being answered with stones for stones,” he remarked, using a local idiom to emphasize a tough countermeasure.
Naqvi also hinted at external involvement behind the latest hostilities. “The pattern of fire and blood we are witnessing in Afghanistan has connections to our perennial enemies,” he claimed, without naming any country.
Reaffirming public solidarity with the armed forces, Naqvi said the people of Pakistan stood united behind the military. “The people of Pakistan stand with our brave armed forces like a wall of steel,” he stated.
The minister further cautioned Kabul against what he called “provocative actions,” saying Pakistan would not hesitate to respond firmly. “Afghanistan will be given a decisive response similar to India’s, so that it will not dare cast a covetous eye toward Pakistan,” he said.
Following Pakistan’s beftitting reply, Afghanistan’s Taliban-led Ministry of Defense announced that it would cease its actions and urged Islamabad to avoid further escalation.
In an statement, the ministry said: “We will now be stopping our retaliatory actions against Pakistan and expect Pakistan to not strike back.”
K-P faces escalating terror wave
K-P has been gripped by a wave of extremism and terrorist violence, with militants infiltrating across the Afghan border to target both security forces and civilians.
On the night of October 10–11, heavily armed assailants attempted to breach the perimeter of the Police Training School in Dera Ismail Khan district. Six policemen — including trainees — were martyred, while twelve others and one civilian sustained injuries as security forces repelled what officials described as a “cowardly terrorist attack.”
Just days earlier, eleven servicemen, including two officers, had been martyred during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in one of K-P’s mountainous districts. Nineteen terrorists were reported killed in the same engagement.
Read More: DG ISPR blames K-P lapses for terror surge
In the aftermath, security forces launched a “retribution operation”, targeting militants linked to the Orakzai attack. According to the military’s media wing, thirty terrorists involved in the incident were killed during the operation, conducted earlier this week.
Addressing a press conference in Peshawar on Friday, DG ISPR Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry acknowledged the deteriorating security situation and the spike in terrorist activity across the country.
He said Pakistan’s counterterrorism campaign had intensified, with over 10,000 intelligence-based operations conducted in K-P alone this year, resulting in the elimination of nearly 1,000 militants.
The DG ISPR warned that the growing involvement of Afghan nationals in terrorism had further complicated Pakistan’s security landscape. “Afghanistan is being used as a base for carrying out terrorism in Pakistan,” he said, urging the Taliban government to ensure its soil was not used against its neighbour.
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He noted that many of the militants active in K-P maintained links to Afghanistan and were using abandoned U.S. weapons left behind after the 2021 withdrawal.
Lt Gen Chaudhry also cited governance failures and the weak implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) as key factors behind the resurgence of militancy. “The vacuum of bad governance is being filled by the blood of the martyred,” he remarked, stressing that effective enforcement of NAP and improved governance in K-P were essential to restoring peace and stability.
