Pakistan Army destroys Afghan Taliban border posts in retaliatory strikes after Angoor Adda firing, Kabul disputes account
Pakistan’s armed forces destroyed several Afghan Taliban posts near South Waziristan and Parachinar in retaliation for firing in Angoor Adda, state media reported, while Kabul offered a conflicting account of who fired first.
Pakistan's armed forces have destroyed several Afghan Taliban posts and military positions along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in a retaliatory operation, state-run Radio Pakistan reported on Friday, citing security sources. The strikes targeted positions in areas adjoining South Waziristan and Parachinar districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and were described as a response to firing from the Afghan side in the Angoor Adda sector earlier in the week.
According to the reports, the army used heavy weaponry against the posts, defensive bunkers and military installations, forcing Afghan Taliban personnel to abandon their positions and flee. Security sources were also quoted as saying that several Afghan Taliban personnel were killed in the operation, although no exact casualty figure was given and the claim could not be independently verified.
The operation was presented as retaliation for what Pakistani officials described as unprovoked firing by Afghan Taliban forces on 27 October in Angoor Adda, in South Waziristan. Reports of that incident said Afghan forces opened fire on border posts and residential areas, including the Angoor Adda bazaar, and that a mortar shell struck a house, killing one civilian and injuring five members of the same family, while several shops were damaged.
Angoor Adda is one of the most sensitive crossings along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, serving as an important trade route and a main point of movement between the two countries. The sector has seen repeated cross-border exchanges in recent months, and Friday's reports underline how quickly a localised firing incident can escalate into a wider military exchange.
Kabul has given a sharply different account of the sequence of events. Afghanistan's defence ministry said in a statement posted on 28 October that Pakistani forces had carried out drone attacks targeting the Angoor Adda market and a commission in Afghanistan's Paktika province, and that Afghan forces responded by targeting Pakistani military headquarters and nearby positions. Pakistan has dismissed Kabul's version of events, with the information ministry describing the Afghan claim as a fabrication of lies.
The competing accounts highlight a familiar pattern in border incidents between the two sides: each accuses the other of firing first, and independent verification from the remote border zone is rarely available in the immediate aftermath. Neither side's casualty claims have been independently confirmed.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi condemned the original firing, asserting that Pakistan would never tolerate attacks on its people or violations of its sovereignty. The condemnation followed the civilian casualties reported in Angoor Adda, which have become a central part of Islamabad's case that its response was defensive.
The latest exchange comes against a backdrop of sustained tension along the border. On 21 September, Pakistan carried out what the government called calibrated airstrikes against terrorist hideouts in the border region, and it carried out further strikes on 1 October. The information ministry has described those operations as part of a wider campaign against militant hideouts, while cross-border firing incidents have continued at intervals since.
Security forces remain deployed along the border, and officials have warned of the risk of further firing. For residents of the border districts, the immediate concern is less the exchange of claims between capitals than the safety of homes, markets and trade routes that sit within range of the guns on both sides.
What happens next will depend on whether the two sides can keep the confrontation contained. Diplomatic contacts could lower the temperature, but further exchanges remain possible if firing resumes, and any new civilian casualties would raise pressure on both governments. For now, the border remains tense, with each side holding to its own version of how the latest round began.
