Pakistan Army Says It Destroyed Afghan Taliban Posts After Kurram Firing
Security sources say Taliban personnel were reported killed and a border post was abandoned as an exchange of fire continued
By AXY Pakistan Desk ·
Key points
- Pakistan's army reportedly destroyed Afghan Taliban posts, including Topsar and Shipola base camp, after firing in Upper Kurram and Ghozgarhi, according to state media citing security sources.
- Several Afghan Taliban personnel were reported killed, but the casualty figures and damage have not been independently confirmed.
- Pakistan says militant groups operating from Afghanistan, including the TTP, are behind attacks inside Pakistan and that Kabul must take verifiable action.
- The Afghan Taliban government has rejected accusations that it allows its territory to be used for attacks against Pakistan.
- The exchange of fire was reported to be continuing, making the next few days of reporting important.
Pakistan's army has retaliated against Afghan Taliban positions along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, with state media reporting on Saturday that several Afghan Taliban posts were destroyed and a number of Taliban personnel were reportedly killed. According to security sources cited by the state broadcaster, the army responded to what it described as unprovoked firing in the Upper Kurram and Ghozgarhi areas by striking the Topsar post and the Shipola base camp in the Upper Kurram sector with artillery fire. The Shipola base camp was reportedly destroyed. The sources said an exchange of fire was continuing in the area when the report was published.
What State Media Reported
The account, which originated with state media citing security sources, describes a sequence of events in which Taliban forces opened fire first and Pakistani forces responded. In the Ghozgarhi border area, several Afghan Taliban personnel were reported killed during the retaliatory action. The sources also said that Taliban personnel abandoned a border post after the Pakistani response. In a later incident, the Kurram sector saw another round of firing from the Afghan side, after which the Pakistan Army responded with heavy weapons. Several Taliban posts were destroyed in that subsequent action, and personnel fled their positions, the sources said.
The security sources added that the Pakistan Army remained alert and committed to defending the country's borders and safeguarding national security. None of the casualty figures or the description of the sequence of events has been independently confirmed in the material available. Afghan Taliban officials had not been quoted in the report, and no independent monitor was cited as having verified the damage or deaths. Readers should treat the figures as Pakistani official-sourced claims rather than established facts.
Background to the Border Dispute
The frontier at the centre of this report is the boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which runs for roughly 2,600 kilometres and is known as the Durand Line. It was drawn in 1893 under British colonial rule and has never been fully accepted by successive Afghan governments, a long-running disagreement that is widely documented in historical accounts. The line cuts through tribal areas, and many communities live on both sides, which has made the border difficult to control and a frequent site of friction.
The Kurram district, where the firing was reported, is a part of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan's north-western province, that borders Afghanistan. Its geography, with mountainous terrain and narrow valleys, has historically made it strategically sensitive. Clashes, shelling and standoffs at various points along the frontier have occurred repeatedly over the past decades, and the current report fits into that pattern of recurring incidents rather than being an isolated event.
The relationship between the two countries changed significantly after the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in August 2021, when the United States-backed government collapsed and Western forces completed their withdrawal. Pakistan had hoped that a Taliban government would be more cooperative on security matters. Instead, Pakistani officials have said in the years since that militant violence has increased, and that militants operating from Afghan territory are responsible for attacks inside Pakistan.
Pakistan's Accusations Against Kabul
The central grievance in the source material is Pakistan's claim that militant groups based in Afghanistan are carrying out attacks inside Pakistan, and that Kabul has not taken adequate action against them. The most prominent of these groups is the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, commonly known as the TTP. It is a separate organisation from the Afghan Taliban, although the two share ideological roots and historical ties, a distinction that is central to how Islamabad frames the dispute. The TTP has waged an insurgency against the Pakistani state for more than a decade, and its attacks have targeted security forces, police and civilians.
According to figures cited by Pakistani authorities in the source material, terrorism emanating from Afghan soil in 2026 alone claimed the lives of 1,327 Pakistanis and injured another 2,484. These figures are attributed to Pakistani officials and have not been independently verified in the material provided, but they indicate the scale of the security concern that Islamabad says underpins its military posture along the border.
Pakistan's officials argue that the problem extends beyond the TTP. The source material notes that United Nations assessments have continued to document the presence of several other militant organisations in Afghanistan, including al Qaeda, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and Islamic State-Khorasan. Islamic State-Khorasan, often abbreviated as ISKP, is a regional affiliate of the Islamic State group that has carried out attacks in Afghanistan and beyond. The East Turkestan Islamic Movement is a group that has been associated with the Chinese region of Xinjiang. Pakistani officials say the combined presence of these groups, along with training facilities, cross-border infiltration and access to sophisticated weapons, shows that Afghanistan remains an important base for militancy affecting Pakistan.
Kabul's Response and the Dispute Over Sanctuaries
The Afghan Taliban government has rejected accusations that it allows its territory to be used for attacks against Pakistan, according to the source material. Kabul's position, as reported, is that it does not permit militants to launch operations from its soil. However, Pakistani officials say that when their forces have targeted militant hideouts, the Taliban government moved to defend the militants and their sanctuaries rather than dismantling the infrastructure. The source material does not include a direct on-the-record response from Kabul to the specific claims made in this latest report.
Islamabad's stated position is that a denial is not enough. Officials say Kabul must take concrete, verifiable steps to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries, eliminate training infrastructure, prevent cross-border infiltration and ensure that Afghan territory is not used for attacks against Pakistan. They have said the Taliban authorities were expected to honour their commitments by acting against groups operating from their territory rather than defending or denying their presence. This framing turns a dispute over security into a question of whether Afghan authorities are willing and able to act, a question that analysts have debated for years without a clear resolution.
The Pakistani government has maintained, according to the source material, that the issue is fundamentally one of national security and that attacks from Afghan soil cannot be addressed through denials alone. This framing matters because it sets the terms for any future diplomacy. If Islamabad sees military responses as a necessary part of defending its territory, then each new exchange of fire becomes a test of whether talks can be sustained.
Why the Kurram Sector Matters
The Kurram area has an outsized importance in Pakistan's security calculations because it lies in a region where local communities, militant groups and the state have long competed for influence. Residents of border districts are often the first to feel the effects of shelling and firing. Artillery exchanges can force families to leave their homes, disrupt schooling and trade, and raise the risk of civilian casualties. The source material does not report any civilian casualties in this incident, and readers should not assume any were caused, but border shelling in general carries these risks.
For ordinary Pakistanis, the stakes are twofold. The first is physical safety, since militant attacks have killed and injured large numbers of people in recent years according to official figures. The second is economic and social stability in the north-west, where insecurity has long affected local livelihoods. For Afghans living near the frontier, the stakes include the risk of being caught between two armed forces and the possibility of displacement.
What to Watch Next
Several questions will determine how this episode develops. The first is whether the exchange of fire, which the sources said was still continuing, stops or escalates into a wider confrontation. Border flare-ups have in the past sometimes been followed by a period of quiet and then by renewed clashes, so the immediate outcome is difficult to predict.
The second is whether either side provides independent or detailed evidence for its account. The current report relies on security sources and state media, and the claimed deaths and destroyed posts have not been confirmed by a neutral observer in the material provided. Analysts would typically look for statements from the Afghan side, observations from international monitors and any reporting from local residents before accepting the scale of the damage.
The third is whether diplomatic channels between Islamabad and Kabul are used to lower tensions. Pakistan has said it expects verifiable action against militant groups, and any move in that direction would be a key signal. Analysts who follow the relationship are likely to watch for meetings between officials, border coordination mechanisms and any change in the rhetoric on either side.
For now, the report establishes a clear claim from Pakistani official sources that its army responded to firing and destroyed Afghan Taliban positions in Kurram, while the Afghan side's account has not been reflected in the material available. Future reporting from both governments, international monitors and local sources will be needed to test those claims.
Topics: Pakistan Army, Afghan Taliban, Kurram, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Ghozgarhi
Sources: Express Tribune