Pakistan shoots down four drones as border tensions escalate

Pakistan’s military said it shot down four rudimentary drones and warned it would respond to any further provocation, the latest sign that a dangerous border confrontation with Afghanistan was still widening.

The drone incident came after a sharp rise in violence along the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier, where both sides have traded accusations over cross-border strikes, militant sanctuaries and attacks on civilians. Pakistan has said its operations are retaliation for attacks and for hideouts linked to groups operating from Afghan territory, while the Taliban have accused Pakistan of hitting civilian areas inside Afghanistan.

The most serious fighting in the latest wave came on June 29, when Pakistani officials said ground operations and air strikes along the border killed 29 fighters. Afghan authorities gave a far higher civilian toll for the same strikes. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said at least 28 civilians were killed and 49 were injured, while Afghan official tallies put the civilian death count at at least 36 and the number of wounded at more than 160. The gap in those figures has become central to the dispute, with each side using the casualty claims to bolster its own account of the fighting.

The violence has not been limited to one exchange. Earlier in March, Pakistan said it intercepted multiple drones launched from Afghanistan over Quetta, Kohat and Rawalpindi. Debris from those drones injured at least four people, including two children, showing that the frontier fight had already moved beyond isolated border posts and into populated areas inside Pakistan.

The latest drone shootdown added to a conflict that has been building since late February and has strained already fragile diplomacy between Islamabad and Kabul. Pakistan’s military response, paired with Taliban accusations of civilian strikes, has heightened fears that the ceasefire efforts and back-channel talks meant to calm the frontier could collapse entirely, leaving counterterrorism operations, refugee movement and wider South Asian security more exposed to escalation.