PESHAWAR: Pakistan said on Sunday 23 of its soldiers were killed and 29 wounded in overnight cross-border clashes with Afghan Taliban fighters and other militants in the fiercest fighting between the two neighbors since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021.
The confrontation marks an unprecedented escalation of hostilities along the porous 2,611-kilometer (1,622-mile) frontier, known as the Durand Line, and threatens to unravel already fragile relations between Islamabad and Kabul.
Earlier in the week, Afghan authorities accused Pakistan of bombing the capital, Kabul, and a market in the country’s east. Pakistan did not claim responsibility for the assault. On Sunday, the Afghan Taliban said they had killed 58 Pakistani soldiers in overnight border operations in response to what it said were repeated violations of its territory and airspace.
Pakistan has previously struck locations inside Afghanistan, targeting what it alleges are militant hideouts, but these have been in remote and mountainous areas. The two sides have also skirmished along the border in the past.
“On the night of 11/12 Oct 2025, Afghan Taliban and Indian-sponsored Fitna al Khawarij [Pakistani Taliban/TTP] launched an unprovoked attack on Pakistan, along the Pak-Afghan border,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing, said in a statement.
“The cowardly action, which included fire and few physical raids, was aimed at destabilizing the border areas to facilitate terrorism.”
Pakistan’s army said its forces exercised “the right of self-defense” and repelled the assault “decisively,” killing more than 200 Taliban fighters and allied militants through “precision fires, strikes and physical raids” on Taliban camps and training facilities operating from Afghan territory.
The statement said 21 Taliban positions on the Afghan side were “briefly physically captured,” and multiple terror training camps “used to plan and facilitate attacks against Pakistan” were destroyed.
“The infra-structural damages to Taliban posts, camps, Headquarters and support networks of terrorists are extensive, all along the border and range from tactical to operational depth,” the Pakistani statement said. “All possible measures were taken to avoid collateral damage and to protect civilian lives.”
The military accused the Taliban government of facilitating “terrorist outfits” including the Afghan-Pakistan branch of the Daesh group, Fitna al Khawarij (FAK), its term for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militants factions, as well as Fitna al Hindustan (FAH), a label it uses for groups allegedly backed by India.
Islamabad has long said these networks operate from Afghan soil with Indian support to destabilize Pakistan, a claim Kabul denies.
“We will not tolerate the treacherous use of Afghan soil for terrorism against Pakistan,” the ISPR said, warning that Islamabad would continue targeting “terror networks” operating from Afghan soil if Kabul failed to act against them.
Relations between the neighbors have sharply deteriorated since 2021, when optimism following the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul gave way to mounting distrust over cross-border militancy. In the years after Kabul’s takeover, Pakistan has accused the Afghan government of tolerating and even providing sanctuary to fighters from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militant groups. Kabul rejects those claims, insisting it does not permit its territory to be used against other states.
Tensions deepened still further in 2023, when Pakistan launched a sweeping deportation campaign against undocumented Afghans, ordering all “unregistered foreigners” to leave by Nov. 1 that year or face expulsion. Islamabad said the move was intended to curb militancy and crime, though rights groups and Afghan officials have condemned it as punitive.
Since then, the deportations have become a recurring flashpoint: by 2025, more than 800,000 Afghans had been repatriated or forced out.
India’s expanding ties to the Taliban, through diplomacy and reconstruction assistance, have further stoked Pakistani fears. Islamabad views New Delhi’s deeper role in Afghan affairs as a strategic encirclement, especially given India’s historic rivalry with Pakistan.
Saudi Arabia and other regional actors have frequently urged both Islamabad and Kabul to step back from confrontation and return to dialogue, warning that unchecked escalation could destabilize South Asia.
