The crux of the problem is that Pakistan fears the enhanced cooperation between India and Afghanistan through the flow of greater Indian humanitarian and developmental assistance.
Relations have deteriorated, with both sides accusing the other of violating sovereignty and harbouring militants. (Image: File)
Intense clashes erupted along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border on the night of 11 October, after an attack by Afghanistan on Pakistani military posts led to a heavy exchange of fire and reportedly left dozens of soldier’s dead. The attacks came after the Taliban regime in Afghanistan accused Pakistan of carrying out airstrikes on Afghan territory, including in the capital, Kabul, earlier last week. According to officials, Afghan troops opened fire on Pakistani army posts along the North-Western border with Pakistan and seized several of the posts. The trigger was Pakistan’s airstrikes in Kabul and on a marketplace in Eastern Afghanistan on 9 October, which Pakistan has not directly claimed responsibility for but has repeatedly stated that it has the right to defend itself against surging militancy that it says is planned from Afghan soil.
On 15 October reportedly, dozens of people were killed and wounded as fresh cross-border clashes erupted between Afghan and Pakistani in Pakistan’s Chaman district and Afghanistan’s Spin Boldak district. Reports claim that the Afghan Taliban forces have destroyed a Pakistan Army border outpost and seized a tank that was used by the Pakistani military to target Taliban posts. What is significant is that the Pakistani airstrikes coincided with the first visit to India by a Taliban leader, Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, which resulted in an announcement by India to upgrade relations. This visit has no doubt caused concern in Islamabad. Coupled with that was another development that remained mostly below the radar was the “Moscow Format” consultations held in Moscow on 7 October attended by Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi as an official member for the first time, as until now, Taliban representatives had attended only as observers. The consultations were attended by India, Russia, China, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, while a delegation from Belarus also attended the meeting as guests. The parties called for strengthening counterterrorism cooperation at both bilateral and multilateral levels while attempts by countries to deploy their military infrastructure were called unacceptable as this does not serve the interests of regional peace and stability. While the statement did not name any country, but it came in the wake of repeated statements by President Donald Trump regarding Bagram air base, which was central to the US military operations in Afghanistan for 20 years.
AFGHAN CLAIMS
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid claimed that Taliban forces killed 58 Pakistani soldiers in the attacks, while just nine from the Taliban side died. The Taliban government’s Defence Ministry said its forces had conducted “retaliatory and successful operations” along the border. “If the opposing side again violates Afghanistan’s territorial integrity, our armed forces are fully prepared to defend the nation’s borders and will deliver a strong response,” said the Ministry. Speaking at a press conference in Delhi, while on an official visit to India the Afghan Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, denied that Afghanistan was giving shelter to TTP fighters. “There is no safe haven for TTP in Afghanistan,” he said. Muttaqi said the situation along the Afghan-Pakistan border was now “under control” and that allies Qatar and Saudi Arabia had reached out to “express that the war should stop”. “Afghanistan has the right to keep its territory and its borders safe and so it has retaliated to the violation,” he said. Though he sent a strong message to Pakistan but the dialing back of rhetoric and a bid to reduce tensions, seems to be due to diplomatic pressure and statements from Saudi Arabia and Qatar urging for de-escalation.
PAKISTAN’S RESPONSE
On 12 October, Pakistan responded with retaliatory strikes, gunfire and ground raids on Afghan Taliban posts along the border. In a statement, the media wing of the Pakistan military said 23 soldiers had been killed and another 29 wounded in the attacks. They claimed that 200 “Taliban and affiliated terrorists” from the Afghan side were killed in their retaliatory strikes and that terrorist training camps had been dismantled. They also accused the Afghan Taliban of launching attacks to “facilitate terrorism”. Ishaq Dar, who is Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, said on X that the Afghan strikes marked “a serious provocation.” He said Pakistani forces had struck Taliban infrastructure and militant groups operating in Afghanistan. Adding to it, he said “We will not tolerate the treacherous use of Afghan soil for terrorism against Pakistan…” The ISPR in a statement after the skirmishes wrote “on the night of Oct 11/12, 2025, [after] Afghan Taliban and India-sponsored Fitna-al-Khawarij launched an unprovoked attack on Pakistan, along the Pak-Afghan border”. Fitna-al-Khawarij is a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The crux of the problem is that Pakistan fears the enhanced cooperation between India and Afghanistan through the flow of greater Indian humanitarian and developmental assistance. Hence their statement that this “serious provocation has occurred during the visit of the [Afghan] Taliban foreign minister to India”. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he “strongly condemns provocations” by Afghanistan and “There will be no compromise on Pakistan’s defence”. Sharif accused Taliban authorities of allowing their land to be used by “terrorist elements”. These clashes have led to the closure of the Northwestern Torkham and Southwestern Chaman crossings for all kinds of movement.
RESURGENT VIOLENCE
Militancy has increased in Northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan in 2021. However, Taliban 2.0 has not panned out the way Taliban 1.0 was as far as its relationship with Pakistan is concerned. There is no doubt that relations between the two countries have deteriorated dramatically in the four years since the fall of Afghanistan to Taliban forces. The vast majority attacks are attributed to the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), a distinct but closely allied group to the Afghan Taliban, which Islamabad claims operates from Afghan soil with impunity. A UN report this year said the TTP “receive substantial logistical and operational support from the de facto authorities”, referring to the Taliban government in Kabul.
After a bloody 2024, with more than 2,500 people killed in violence, Pakistan and Kabul tried to reset their relationship. In April, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar visited Kabul, with senior leadership on both sides holding a series of meetings, often mediated by China. That process led to upgraded diplomatic ties and a brief lull in violence over the summer. But the Taliban campaign against Pakistan security forces has once again intensified. More than 500 people, including 311 troops and 73 policemen, have been killed in attacks since January as per reports. Violence in the border region has “plunged relations between the neighbours to an all-time low”, said Maleeha Lodhi, a former senior Pakistani diplomat. While Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told Parliament on 9 October that several efforts to convince the Afghan Taliban to stop backing the TTP had failed. “Enough is enough,” he said. “The Pakistani government and Army’s patience has run out.” Pakistan military reportedly has used artillery, tanks, and drones to target Afghan positions, saying it captured 19 Afghan border posts from where the attacks were launched. PTV also aired footage showing border posts in flames and Afghan soldiers allegedly surrendering in Kurram. Pakistan also claimed to have destroyed several Taliban installations, including the Manojba Battalion Headquarters and Kharchar Fort.
CONCLUSION
Since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, the Pakistan government has accused them of giving shelter to the TTP, who are behind a deadly rise in insurgent attacks in Pakistan’s border region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Relations have deteriorated, with both sides accusing the other of violating sovereignty and harbouring militants. In keeping with this, the Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid on 12 October accused Pakistan of sheltering ISIS fighters from multiple countries in West Asia and said Pakistan based ISIS elements were behind the attacks in Russia and Iran. Pakistan, unfortunately, must face the reality that a sword can cut either way. But the present clashes signal a new low in Afghan-Pakistan relations, which have become increasingly hostile amid claims that Afghanistan is giving a safe haven to militants carrying out an escalating number of deadly attacks on Pakistani soil. Though a temporary ceasefire for 48 hours was announced on the evening of 15 October but the state of relations between the two neighbours remains fragile and this ceasefire seems to have broken down now. For Pakistan which is besieged by an ongoing uprising in Baluchistan and unrest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or KPK, as well as the latest troubles in PoJK, the clashes with Afghanistan add to their fault lines which are not being addressed and have the potential to spiral out of control. It is imperative for them to therefore put their own house in order. Michael Kugelman, a South Asia analyst based in Washington DC, described the border situation as “precarious”. He emphasised that while the cash-strapped Taliban in Afghanistan “lacks the capacity to fight the Pakistani military head-on”, he said that “the risk is that its recent strikes in Afghanistan will galvanise TTP to carry out reprisals, which could invite further and perhaps more intense Pakistani operations in Afghanistan.” Though President Trump before leaving for the Middle East, said he could take up the conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan after his return, since he is “good at solving wars.” However, presently there seem to be no easy long-term solutions as the Taliban seems to have adopted a playbook similar to that of Pakistan.
Maj Gen Jagatbir Singh, VSM (Retd) is an Indian Army veteran.
