Pakistan, Taliban Trade Blame After Deadly Border Clash in Spin Boldak
KANDAHAR / ISLAMABAD — Pakistan and Afghanistan on Wednesday offered starkly different accounts of a deadly border confrontation that left scores of civilians wounded in the southern Afghan district of Spin Boldak, underscoring escalating tensions along one of the region’s most volatile frontiers, according to TOLOnews.
Local officials in Spin Boldak, Kandahar province, said Pakistan launched an airstrike around 4 p.m., targeting the district’s commissariat and nearby civilian areas. Afghan authorities reported that fighting between Taliban border guards and Pakistani forces raged for five hours before Islamabad requested a ceasefire.
“The fighting stopped because the Mujahideen inflicted a heavy defeat on them,” claimed Ali Mohammad Haqmal, head of information and culture in Spin Boldak. “They requested to stop the fighting after suffering heavy losses.”
Neda Mohammad, a local security official, said Pakistani forces left behind dead and wounded soldiers. “Our Mujahideen crossed over and brought back the bodies,” he said.
However, Pakistani officials presented a sharply contrasting account. Islamabad’s Foreign Office announced that Pakistan and the Taliban regime had “mutually agreed” to a 48-hour ceasefire beginning at 6 p.m., following a request from Kabul. The ministry said the truce aimed to allow for “constructive dialogue” toward a sustainable resolution.
Security sources in Pakistan said its army had carried out “precision strikes” earlier in the day on Taliban military positions inside Kandahar, destroying multiple strongholds in response to “recent aggression.” The strikes, according to these sources, killed dozens of Taliban fighters and foreign operatives linked to cross-border attacks.
On the Afghan side, however, the toll was borne largely by civilians. Hospital officials in Spin Boldak said more than 80 people were injured, including women and children, and at least 20 bodies were recovered, many of them from residential areas. “We received 80 wounded, among them children,” said Akhtar Jan Barak, head of the district hospital. “Several have been sent to Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar.”
Residents described chaos as shells struck homes and markets. “A shell hit my cousin’s son’s house—his son and wife were killed, and their children were wounded,” said Haji Sadiq, a local villager. “Other houses were hit too.”
The fighting forced the closure of the Chaman–Spin Boldak border crossing; a key trade and transit route as families fled to safer ground.
Despite the declared ceasefire, tensions remain high, with both Islamabad and Kabul accusing the other of instigating violence along the frontier that divides allies in name but adversaries in practice.
