KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – At least one civilian was killed and 16 others injured, most of them women and children, in Pakistani shelling in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province on Sunday, according to the Taliban authorities.
In a post on X, Taliban deputy spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said the attack took place around 5:00 pm local time, with mortars and other heavy weaponry striking rural areas and civilian residences on the outskirts of Asadabad city, the provincial capital.
“Once again, the militias of the Pakistani military regime conducted shelling on rural areas and civilian residences located on the outskirts of Asadabad using mortars and other heavy weaponry,” Fitrat stated.
Pakistani officials have not commented on the latest reported attack.
The reported shelling is the latest in a series of cross-border attacks and airstrikes by Pakistan inside Afghanistan since late February, amid escalating tensions between the two sides. Kunar, a mountainous province along the border, has been repeatedly targeted in recent weeks.
United Nations agencies have recorded 289 civilian casualties in Afghanistan from Pakistani attacks between late February and mid-March, including 76 killed and 213 injured. More than half of the victims were women and children.
Civilian casualties have also been reported inside Pakistan from Taliban retaliatory rocket and drone strikes.
The violence has triggered widespread displacement. UN agencies estimate that at least 20,000 families—mostly women and children—have been forced to leave their homes in Afghanistan.
A particularly deadly strike occurred on March 16 when Pakistani airstrikes hit the Omid drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul. The Taliban reported around 400 civilian deaths and 250 injuries in that incident, while the UN confirmed 143 deaths and dozens more wounded. Human Rights Watch said the attack could amount to a war crime, and both the UN and international rights groups have called for an independent investigation and accountability.
Calls for restraint and dialogue from the UN, regional governments, and humanitarian organizations have so far failed to stop the violence.
Relations between Pakistan and the Taliban authorities have deteriorated sharply in recent years, despite their once-close ties. Islamabad accuses the Taliban of sheltering militants from groups such as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, who use Afghan soil to launch attacks inside Pakistan.
Pakistan has experienced a sharp rise in militant violence since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021, with groups such as TTP and Baloch Liberation Army intensifying attacks on security forces and government installations.
The Institute for Economics & Peace ranked Pakistan as the country most affected by terrorism in its 2025 Global Terrorism Index, the first time it has held the top spot. The report recorded 1,139 terrorism-related deaths and 1,045 incidents in Pakistan in 2025 — the highest fatality toll since 2013.
