The Afghanistan–Pakistan skirmishes are a series of armed skirmishes between Afghanistan and the Pakistan since 1949, along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border.
The latest round of hostilities between the two countries began in April 2007. Militants belonging to internationally designated terrorist groups Tehrik-i-Taliban/Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar also use Afghanistan's territory to target Pakistani security personnel deployed along the border. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, spokesperson for the Pakistan Armed Forces, said that the presence of terrorists belonging to the TTP on Afghan soil is the reason for sporadic shelling of, and airstrikes on, Afghanistan's territory by the Pakistan Armed Forces. After de-escalation in March 2024, the conflict resurged in December 2024 with Pakistani airstrikes against Afghanistan, specifically in Paktika Province. Conflict in December 2024 marked the third round of air strikes by Pakistan on the territory of Afghanistan in a period of less than two years. The first similar Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan soil since Taliban takeover of Afghanistan were in 2022 and the second Pakistani airstrikes were in March 2024.
Starting on 9 October 2025, fighting between the two countries escalated, with a gunfight in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, followed by reported Pakistani airstrikes in Kabul, Khost, Jalalabad, and Paktika targeting the TTP and its leader, Noor Wali Mehsud. In retaliation, the Taliban launched attacks on multiple Pakistani military posts along the Durand Line on 11–12 October, triggering intense cross-border skirmishes and reported Pakistani drone strikes in Kandahar and Helmand. Heavy fighting resumed around Spin Boldak on 15 October, after which Pakistan conducted further strikes in Kabul and Kandahar. Both sides accused each other of violating the truce and targeting civilians. On 19 October, following mediation by Qatar and Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire, under which Kabul pledged to curb militant activity against Pakistan, while both nations vowed to refrain from further attacks.
During the same period, the TTP and the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) carried out attacks inside Pakistan, while the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan and the Afghanistan Freedom Front launched assaults against the Taliban within Afghanistan. Both countries accused each other of supporting armed opposition groups operating against them. On 21 February 2026, Pakistani airstrikes targeted TTP militant camps in Afghanistan, which escalated into border skirmishes, and eventually, a broader war between the Taliban and Pakistani forces.
Background
Hostilities existed between Afghanistan and the newly independent Pakistan since 1947, when Afghanistan became the only country to vote against the admission of Pakistan to the United Nations. Before Pakistan's independence, Afghanistan advocated the independence of its north-west frontier, although the region's predominant Pashtun population had voted overwhelmingly in favor of Pakistan over India in the referendum held in July 1947. 99.02% votes were cast in favor of Pakistan. Though the proposed Pashtunistan state by Afghanistan fluctuated in size over time, the Balochistan province of Pakistan was also frequently included in the Greater Pastunistan definition to gain access to the Arabian sea in case Pakistan failed as a state, as Afghanistan had expected, but the idea became unpopular.
The International border between British India and Afghanistan was established after the 1893 Durand Line Agreement between British Mortimer Durand of British India and Amir Abdur Rahman Khan of Afghanistan for fixing the limit of their respective spheres of influence. The single-page agreement, which contains seven short articles, was signed by Durand and Khan, agreeing not to exercise political interference beyond the frontier line between what was then the Emirate of Afghanistan and what was also then the British Indian Empire. The Durand Line was reaffirmed as the International Border between Afghanistan and British India in the 1919 Anglo-Afghan War after the Afghan independence. The Afghans undertook to stop interference on the British side of the line in the subsequent Anglo-Afghan Treaty of 1919 in Rawalpindi.
Pakistan inherited the Durand Line agreement after its independence in 1947, but the Afghan Government has always refused to accept the Durand Line Agreement. Afghanistan has several times tried to seize Pakistan's western provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The then Afghan Prime Minister, Muhammad Hashim, said: "... if an independent Pashtunistan cannot be set up, the frontier province should join Afghanistan. Our neighbor Pakistan will realize that our country, with its population and trade, needs an outlet to the sea, which is very essential", in an interview with the Statesman. In 1949, Pakistan Air Force bombed the Afghan sponsored militant camps in border areas including an Afghan village to curb an unrest led by Ipi Faqir propagating independent Pashtunistan. Border clashes were reported in 1949–50 for the first time.
1950s–1970s
On 30 September 1950, Pakistan claimed that Afghan troops and tribesmen had crossed into Pakistan's Balochistan, resulting in the Afghan invasion of Pakistan. The low-scale invasion was repelled after six days of fighting. The Afghan government denied its involvement and claimed that they were pro-Pashtunistan Pashtun tribesmen.
Tensions soared with the Pakistani One Unit program, and both countries withdrew ambassadors and diplomatic staff in 1955. The Pakistani Embassy in Kabul and consulates in Kandhar and Jalalabad were attacked by mobs. In 1960, major skirmishes broke with the Afghan Forces massing out on the Afghan side of the border with tanks. These skirmishes saw the Pakistan Air Force bombarding Afghan forces. This bombardment led to a brief hiatus in the skirmishes. On 6 September 1961, Kabul formally severed diplomatic relations with Pakistan. In March 1961, months before the major battle broke out in the khyber pass area, Afghanistan reportedly provided weapons and ammunition to proxies under the leadership of Fazl Akbar, to incite an uprising in the Batmalai district of Bajaur. Pacha Gul was advised to go before an aerial counteroffensive would be triggered for serving as an agent for Afghanistan and providing resources worth of 170 million Afghanis, cash, and arms to the bajaur tribesmen which were to incite an uprising against Pakistan. The Pakistan air force acted by bombing the area where the ammunition dump was stored. The Pakistani air force then claimed to have destroyed a major ammunition dump during the raid.
In 1950 the House of Commons of the United Kingdom held its view on the Afghan-Pakistan dispute over the Durand Line by stating:
His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom has seen with regret the disagreements between the Governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan about the status of the territories on the North West Frontier. It is His Majesty's Government's view that Pakistan is in international law the inheritor of the rights and duties of the old Government of India and of his Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom in these territories and that the Durand Line is the international frontier.
At the 1956 SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organization) Ministerial Council Meeting held at Karachi, capital of Pakistan at the time, it was stated:
The members of the Council declared that their governments recognised that the sovereignty of Pakistan extends up to the Durand Line, the international boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and it was consequently affirmed that the Treaty area referred to in Articles IV and VIII of the Treaty includes the area up to that Line.
— SEATO, 8 March 1956
The Afghan government, having secured a treaty in December 1978 that allowed them to call on Soviet forces, repeatedly requested the introduction of troops in Afghanistan in the spring and summer of 1979. The 1979 Soviet–Afghan War forced millions of Afghans to take refuge inside Pakistan. Pakistani officials feared that the Soviet Union began some kind of military show down and that Pakistan or at least its Balochistan province was next on the Soviet agenda. During the early 1980s, multi-national mujahideen forces (consisting of about 100,000 fighters from forty different Muslim countries in addition to 150,000 local fighters) found support from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iran in the context of the Cold War. They were trained by Pakistani military in its frontier region around the Durand Line.
1980s
On 29 September 1984, Pakistani officials stated that an Afghan Air Force aircraft flew across the Durand Line and used its munitions on Pakistani border town Teri Mangal, situated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, used by the Afghan mujahideen. The plane supposedly dropped two bombs and stayed in Pakistani airspace for 2–4 minutes before flying back to Afghanistan. As a result of the bombing, 32 people were killed, 48 were injured and 200 local shops in the town were destroyed. In the same year, observers reported that Soviet–Afghan forces made 43 airspace violations and 14 ground incursions into Pakistan, resulting in 300 casualties and heavy losses for each side. The Afghan government then accused the Pakistan Army of attacking its garrisons after airstrikes spilled into Pakistani territory.
On 7 January 1986, the Afghan government submitted an official protest to the United Nations, accusing the Pakistani government of continued aggression and violations of Afghan sovereignty, despite repeated diplomatic complaints. The Afghan authorities additionally asserted that Pakistan was supporting anti-government elements (such as the Mujahideen) and enabling attacks on Afghan territory. The complaint cited numerous specific incidents:
- On 2 January 1986, two Pakistan Air Force (PAF) helicopters penetrated 3 km into Afghan airspace near Gurpary (20 km southwest of Asadabad, Kunar). These helicopters allegedly coordinated artillery shelling on Pashad from nearby areas under Pakistan's jurisdiction, causing 8 civilian casualties, 6 injuries, and the destruction of 30 houses.
- On 30 December 1985, under Pakistani air cover, two missile launchers fired 150 rockets from Bandi Sarash and Karbaz villages into Afghan territory, killing 2 teachers, 5 civilians, and destroying 22 houses in Kunar.
- On 1 December 1985, a PAF jet reportedly entered 6 km into Afghan airspace over Pozdakah (from Torkham) and returned to Pakistan after 10 minutes.
Present day
The Soviet Union decided to withdraw in 1989 and when aid dried up on Afghanistan in 1992, a civil war began. This was followed by the rise and fall of the Taliban government. Since late 2001, as high as 140,000 NATO-led troops were stationed in Afghanistan to train Afghans and rebuild their war-torn country. In the meantime, the Taliban insurgency began around 2004. To counter the insurgency and bring stability in Afghanistan, the United States built bases and garrisons for the Afghan National Security Forces, and is using unmanned aerial vehicles to carry out drone attacks in Pakistan, mainly the Haqqani network in and around the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
In 2007, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group was established as a coalition of various hardline Sunni Islamist factions in Pakistan. This formation came in response to military actions against Al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), an area in northwest Pakistan. The group, led initially by Baitullah Mehsud, is primarily located along the border with Afghanistan and is estimated to have between 30,000 and 35,000 members. TTP aims to overthrow Pakistan's elected government to create an emirate governed by its interpretation of Islamic law. To achieve this goal, the TTP has attacked the Pakistani military and assassinated political figures. Their violent actions, including numerous suicide bombings, have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of military personnel, police, and civilians.
TTP has been responsible for some of the most devastating attacks in Pakistan, targeting churches, schools, and notable figures like Malala Yousafzai, who survived an assassination attempt in 2012 for advocating women's education against Taliban restrictions. Following the Taliban's takeover in Afghanistan in 2021, TTP has become more aggressive, as its leaders and fighters are based in Afghanistan. After ending a cease-fire with the Pakistani government in late 2022, TTP has intensified its attacks, causing casualties among Pakistani soldiers and police.
In September 2017, Brad Sherman, a US lawmaker, suggested conditioning US aid to Afghanistan to the recognition of Durand Line. He added:
I realise that's tough. They'll say, oh, don't—but the fact is, as long as Afghanistan leaves open the idea that they're claiming Pakistani territory, it's going to be very hard to get the Pakistanis involved, as we need them involved, in controlling the Afghan Taliban.
Islamic Republic era skirmishes
The following is an incomplete list of recent events relating to the Afghanistan–Pakistan skirmishes. Some of these events cannot be independently verified because news journalists usually have very limited access to reaching the areas where the fighting take place.