Pakan claims killing 67 Afghan security force members

3 min readUpdated: Mar 3, 2026 04:02 PM Afghanan’s ground forces attacked Pakan’s military positions at 16 locations along the southwestern border early Tuesday and fired on multiple points in the northwest, triggering intense clashes in which 67 Afghan security force members and one Pakani soldier were killed, as fighting between the two neighbors entered its fifth consecutive day, officials said.
Pakan “successfully repelled these multiple attacks” along the Afghan border, Information Miner Attaullah Tarar said. Afghan forces carried out ground assaults in 16 locations in the southwestern dricts of Qilla Saifullah, Nushki and Chaman in Balochan province, Tarar said on X. In retaliatory attacks, Pakan killed 27 members of Afghan forces, he said.
Tarar said that Afghan forces also launched attacks at 25 locations in the border regions of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where Pakani troops killed 40 Afghan security force members. There was no immediate comment from Kabul on the Pakani figures.
However, Pakan and Afghanan have both repeatedly claimed to inflicted heavy losses on the other side since Thursday, when Afghanan launched attacks in retaliation for Pakani airstrikes the previous Sunday. Since then, Pakan has carried out operations along the border, with Tarar on Monday, saying that 435 Afghan security force members were killed and that 31 positions have been captured in the fighting.
In recent days, Kabul has also said that its forces inflicted significant losses on Pakan’s military. The latest announcement about the killing of Afghan forces came a day after Pakani President Asif Ali Zardari defended the ongoing strikes in Afghanan, saying Islamabad had tried all forms of diplomacy before targeting militants operating from Afghan territory. He asked Kabul to disarm groups responsible for attacks in Pakan.
‘Open War’
Pakan has described its operations as an “open war ” with Afghanan, alarming the international community. The border area remains a stronghold for militant organizations, including al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.Pakan has experienced a surge in violence in recent months, which it attributes to the outlawed Pakani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakan, or TTP, which operates inside Pakan and from Afghan territory.
Islamabad accuses Afghanan’s Taliban government of providing safe havens for the TTP, which Kabul denies.Story continues below this ad
The latest cross-border fighting ended a ceasefire brokered Qatar and Turkey in October. Talks in anbul failed to produce a permanent agreement, and Pakani authorities have said that operations will continue until Afghanan’s Taliban government takes practical, verifiable steps to rein in the TTP and other militants behind violence in Pakan.