KABUL / ISLAMABAD — Taliban police in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province said Pakistani rocket fire struck homes in Sordagh village in the Shkin district at about 3 p.m. on Sunday, November 1, killing one civilian and wounding two others and damaging several houses, Asia Daily reported. Pakistani officials had not commented on that incident, the report said, and the claim could not be independently verified.
A separate report by the independent Afghan outlet Hasht-e Subh, carried by the news agency Daryo, said local sources reported three people killed or injured in clashes between Taliban fighters and Pakistani forces in Paktika province on November 1, and that Pakistani forces had allegedly launched rocket attacks that destroyed homes. The two accounts agree on the broad outline — rockets, homes hit, three casualties in Paktika on Sunday — but they come from the Afghan side of the border, and no Pakistani statement on the Shkin incident had appeared in either report.
Fresh firing also reported at Torkham
Local sources also reported fresh clashes on Sunday between Taliban forces and Pakistani troops near the Torkham border crossing, the main crossing between the two countries, which was closed as travel and truck traffic stopped, according to reporting by Khaama Press carried by Voice of Emirates. Those sources said the exchange followed an attempt to establish a new security outpost near the border; there was no confirmed casualty information from Torkham and no official comment from either side in that report. Awaaz Punjab reported the previous round of this flare-up on October 29, when Pakistan and Afghanistan exchanged drone, mortar and artillery fire along the border for a second week.
Pakistan's drone warning, two days earlier
The weekend violence followed a blunt warning from Pakistan's military spokesperson, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, who said in an interview on October 30 that Pakistan was ahead of both the Afghan Taliban and India in operational readiness and could intercept drones launched from Afghanistan. 'Whatever they want to send, they can; they may try. We have the capability to take them on,' Chaudhry said, according to Asia Daily's account of the interview. He accused Kabul of sheltering Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leaders and other militants who organise attacks inside Pakistan — an allegation the Taliban authorities reject, with Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid saying Afghanistan had neither the interest nor the capacity to create insecurity in Pakistan. Chaudhry also alleged that Afghan drone equipment came from outside sponsors, particularly India; no Indian response to those remarks was reported.
The human cost behind the confrontation is documented on both sides, in figures that describe different things: the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan documented more than 1,700 civilian deaths and injuries from cross-border violence inside Afghanistan between October 2025 and September 2026, while Pakistani authorities say terrorism they attribute to Afghan territory killed 1,327 Pakistanis and injured 2,484 during 2026. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta that Washington had heard Pakistan's concerns about attacks allegedly sponsored from Afghan territory and was ready to play a productive role if an opportunity arose, Asia Daily reported. Talks facilitated by Qatar and Turkiye, later involving China, have produced no breakthrough, and no date for a new round has been announced.
Watch for any Pakistani statement on the reported Shkin strike, whether the Torkham crossing reopens to trade and travellers, and whether mediators — Qatar, Turkiye, China or the US — announce a new round of talks. Casualty claims from both sides remain unverified independently.