After bombings and terrorist attacks
Pakistan and Afghanistan are engaged in fierce border clashes
October 12, 2025 – 8:21 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan are rising. The neighboring countries accuse each other of attacks. Pakistan is struggling with increasing violence from a terrorist group.
There have been fierce clashes on the border between the neighboring states of Afghanistan and Pakistan following suspected Pakistani air strikes. The defense ministry of the Taliban ruling Afghanistan spoke on the online platform X of attacks on Pakistani border guards that had stopped at midnight (local time). The attacks were a response to “repeated attacks on Afghanistan’s sovereignty by the Pakistani military.”
The Pakistani army then fired artillery at the other side, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported. There was initially no official information on deaths or injuries. However, the Afghan news channel Tolonews reported twelve Pakistani soldiers killed.
According to reports, the Afghan capital Kabul was the target of air strikes late on Thursday evening. Pakistan has neither officially confirmed nor denied reports of involvement. Pakistani intelligence circles told the German Press Agency that the attacks were aimed at Noor Wali Mehsud, the head of the Pakistani Taliban Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP). The TTP wants to overthrow the government in Islamabad and install an Islamist government similar to that in Afghanistan.
According to the Afghan rulers, Pakistan is also said to have attacked a market near the border from the air on Friday. “This is an unprecedented, violent and provocative act,” the Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement. “We strongly condemn this violation of Afghan airspace and it is our right to defend our territory.” Pakistan initially did not respond to these allegations, saying only that at least eleven Pakistani soldiers had been killed in clashes with militants in the border area.
The Pakistani military previously said soldiers had killed 30 militants involved in the Oct. 7 attack on a Pakistani military convoy near the Afghan border. Nine soldiers and two officers were killed. The TTP claimed responsibility for the attack in Pakistan’s Orakzai district. The Pakistani military accused India of being behind the attack on the convoy.
Last May, Pakistan and India fought a brief but intense war over tensions in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, disputed between both sides. Pakistan has repeatedly accused India of supporting extremists in attacks in Pakistan. The government in Delhi rejects this as unfounded.
The Pakistani Taliban also claimed responsibility for several deadly attacks in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday. The TTP published a statement of responsibility in the online media. According to security authorities, 23 people were killed in the attacks on Friday, including police officers, paramilitary fighters and three civilians.
The latest fighting reflects growing tensions between Islamabad and Kabul. Pakistan has been grappling with increasing violence from the TTP for a while and has accused the neighboring country’s Taliban of sheltering fighters on its soil. Those in power in Kabul reject the allegations.
