A series of occasional armed skirmishes and firefights have occurred along the Afghanistan–Pakistan border between the Afghan Armed Forces and the Pakistan Armed Forces since 1949. The latest round of hostilities between the two countries began in April 2007. Militants belonging to Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar also use Afghanistan's territory to target Pakistani security personnel deployed along the border. The Diplomat says that the presence of terrorists belonging to Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan on Afghan soil is the reason for sporadic shelling of Afghanistan's territory by Pakistani security 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. 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." 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. 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. 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 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. Most of these events cannot be independently verified because news journalists usually have very limited access to reaching the areas where the fighting take place.

Islamic Emirate era skirmishes

The Taliban returned to power after capturing Kabul on the 2021 offensive. The Taliban-led Afghanistan has been increasingly involved in border conflicts with Pakistan.

Sources