RASC News Agency: Local sources in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province have confirmed that two Taliban militants were killed in a recent armed confrontation with Pakistani border guards in the Shigal district, once again exposing the Taliban regime’s inability to assert control over the nation’s borders. The clash, which took place on Saturday, June 13, in the volatile Takhtakhur region along the Durand Line, marks yet another flashpoint in the deteriorating relations between the two countries. According to eyewitnesses and residents familiar with the incident, hostilities broke out after Pakistani troops attempted to construct a new military outpost along the contested border an act widely perceived as an encroachment on Afghanistani soil. The move triggered an armed response from Taliban fighters stationed in the area, culminating in a brief but deadly exchange of gunfire. Two Taliban members, identified as Sher Alam and Musa both reportedly affiliated with the local Taliban commander Mawlawi Mohammad Hassan were killed in the firefight.
The Taliban’s official channels have thus far remained silent on the incident, offering no statement or acknowledgment of the casualties among their ranks. This silence reflects a broader pattern of inaction and opacity that has increasingly defined the Taliban’s response to Pakistan’s frequent incursions across Afghanistan’s eastern frontiers. The Afghanistan-Pakistan border, particularly across Kunar, Nangarhar, and Paktia provinces, has long been a source of volatility. Armed clashes between Taliban units and Pakistani forces have been reported with alarming frequency since the group’s return to power in August 2021, revealing the Taliban’s lack of coherent border policy or diplomatic strategy. The Taliban’s rise has not strengthened national sovereignty instead, it has left border regions more exposed and unstable than ever.
Civilians residing in the affected districts have voiced mounting fears over Pakistan’s aggressive military posture, especially its repeated attempts to construct fortifications without coordination or consent from Afghanistani authorities. “Pakistan continues to build military posts as if no government exists in Kabul,” said one resident of Shigal, speaking anonymously out of fear of retaliation. “The Taliban is either unwilling or incapable of stopping it.” For many Afghanistani citizens, these events are emblematic of a deeper crisis: the Taliban’s growing subservience to the very forces they once claimed to oppose. Despite their propaganda-laden rhetoric of resistance and sovereignty, the Taliban has failed to confront Pakistani military aggression or defend the integrity of Afghanistan’s internationally disputed borders.
Analysts warn that these unchecked border confrontations could ignite broader regional instability. With the Taliban unable to diplomatically challenge Islamabad or militarily deter its incursions eastern Afghanistan risks becoming a no-man’s-land where ordinary civilians bear the brunt of geopolitical power plays. In the absence of transparent governance and with no functioning foreign policy apparatus, the Taliban’s failure to respond to these provocations not only emboldens Pakistan but also further erodes what little legitimacy the regime has managed to claim domestically and internationally. The Taliban’s silence, in the face of bloodshed and humiliation at the hands of a neighboring state, is as deafening as it is damning.
