Fresh clashes along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border have left people dead and injured on both sides, according to reports published on 29 October. China's Xinhua news agency reported that two people were killed and two others injured by gunfire from Pakistani territory on Wednesday near the Torkham border crossing in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province. Separately, Pakistan's border service said one person was killed and five others injured when Afghan forces fired mortars in the Lower South Waziristan district of northwestern Pakistan. The casualty figures come from the two sides' own accounts and have not been independently verified.

Strikes and fighting at several points

Afghanistan's defence ministry said Pakistan carried out strikes on military installations in Paktia province using four unmanned aerial vehicles, adding another front to a border already under strain. Afghan media had also reported intermittent fighting at Torkham itself on 28 October, with a child and an aid organisation employee reportedly wounded. The latest incidents follow weeks of recurring clashes along the frontier, including heavy-weapons exchanges in the Paktika–Khyber Pakhtunkhwa border area earlier in October. Pakistan accuses the Taliban authorities of sheltering the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and other militant groups, a charge Kabul rejects.

The human and economic cost

The human and economic cost of the repeated fighting is mounting. Border closures and insecurity have sharply curtailed trade between the two countries, with figures from Pakistan's Trade Development Authority showing bilateral trade down 95 percent in fiscal year 2026 compared with the previous year. For communities living along the frontier, the latest clashes are less an isolated incident than another round in a cycle that has repeatedly interrupted daily life since the current escalation began.

Sources: AzerNews, FDD's Long War Journal.