Pakistani and Afghan forces exchanged fire at several border points on Sunday as Islamabad’s military warned that the Afghan Taliban would not withstand the “punishment” Pakistan could inflict if Kabul failed to rein in terrorists, Dawn reports.

At Torkham, about an hour of light-arms fire over a disputed check post shut the crossing for nearly five hours; it reopened after both sides agreed via intermediaries to halt construction near the border. At Angoor Adda (Lower South Waziristan), one civilian died in mortar fire; local officials said Pakistani forces hit Afghan posts, with no Pakistani-side casualties reported.

ISPR spokesperson Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said Pakistan has the readiness to impose a heavy cost on Afghanistan’s interim leadership if terrorism keeps originating there. He demanded an end to harbouring terrorist leaders and named India as the “prime contractor” behind the TTP and BLA — a standard Islamabad claim, not independently confirmed here.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a G20 meeting that Washington shares Pakistan’s concerns about attacks from Afghan soil and is open to easing tensions: “We don’t want Pakistan to be targeted for terrorism.”

Image: Torkham crossing (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0).

Sources consulted: Kabul warned of ‘unbearable punishment’ as clashes persist along border - Dawn.