RASC News Agency: Tensions along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border have escalated once again as Taliban forces and Pakistani border guards engaged in renewed hostilities at the Torkham crossing late Monday night, March 3. Taliban officials in Nangarhar province confirmed the confrontation, stating that the skirmish erupted around 9:30 PM. A senior official from the Taliban’s Directorate of Information and Culture in Nangarhar claimed that Taliban fighters had targeted a key Pakistani border outpost, inflicting casualties on Pakistani personnel. Eyewitnesses in the region reported that the firefight continued for a prolonged period, with both sides deploying light and heavy weaponry.
The precise cause of the confrontation remains unclear, and Pakistani authorities have yet to issue an official statement. However, this latest escalation follows another violent exchange on Sunday night, during which, according to the Taliban’s Ministry of Interior, one Taliban fighter was killed and two others sustained injuries. These hostilities are unfolding against the backdrop of an 11-day closure of the Torkham border crossing, driven by an ongoing dispute over border infrastructure and military installations. Taliban officials previously stated that their forces sought to construct a security outpost along the border, but Pakistani forces intervened and subsequently shut down the crossing.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, however, countered this narrative, asserting that the Taliban had attempted to erect the outpost on Pakistani soil. At the heart of these tensions lies the long-standing dispute over the Durand Line, the contested Afghanistan-Pakistan border established under an 1893 treaty during the reign of King Abdur Rahman Khan. While Pakistan recognizes the Durand Line as an internationally sanctioned boundary, the Taliban like previous Afghanistani governments reject it as a colonial-era imposition.
This border dispute has been a persistent flashpoint in Afghanistan-Pakistan relations, with analysts frequently citing it as a key driver of Pakistan’s strategic interference in Afghanistan and a major contributor to the region’s prolonged instability.
