Fresh firing reported at Torkham as Taliban and Pakistani forces clash again, disrupting returns of Afghan migrants
Local sources say Taliban fighters and Pakistani forces exchanged fire at the Torkham border crossing on Sunday after the Taliban tried to set up a checkpoint near the crossing, prompting humanitarian staff to leave the area and halting the return of Afghan migrants.
Taliban fighters and Pakistani forces have clashed again at the Torkham border crossing, local sources told Afghan news outlets on Sunday, 1 November 2026, in the latest outbreak of fighting at one of the main gateways between the two countries. The reports say the two sides exchanged fire near the crossing, disrupting the movement of people and the work of humanitarian organisations in the area.
According to Hasht-e Subh, which cited local sources, the fighting began around noon on Sunday after Taliban fighters attempted to establish a checkpoint near the crossing and Pakistani forces opposed the move. Khaama Press, also citing local sources, reported that the exchange of fire followed an attempt by Taliban forces to set up a security post known as Jangal near the border, and said the fighting was continuing at the time of its report.
The immediate human consequences described in the reports centre on civilians and aid workers rather than on the forces involved. Hasht-e Subh said staff from humanitarian organisations left the area after the fighting began, and that the Taliban evacuated a camp for migrants deported from Pakistan, moving returnees away from the site. Khaama Press reported that the latest fighting disrupted the return of Afghan migrants from Pakistan through Torkham.
Torkham matters because it is the principal route through which Afghans have been returning from Pakistan this year. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has said more than 600,000 people returned to Afghanistan through the crossing between January and early October 2026, accounting for nearly 85 per cent of recorded returns from Pakistan in that period. Any interruption at the crossing therefore affects large numbers of families, many of whom are already travelling with few resources.
What is not yet known about Sunday’s clash is as important as what has been reported. Neither the Taliban authorities nor Pakistani officials had publicly commented on the incident by the time the reports were published, and no information was immediately available about possible casualties or damage. The absence of an official account means the trigger for the fighting, its scale and its duration rest for now on the accounts of local sources carried by the two Afghan outlets.
Hasht-e Subh described Sunday’s incident as the third clash between Taliban and Pakistani forces at Torkham in the past week, a sequence that underlines how unsettled this stretch of the border has become. The most recent earlier incident, on 28 October, drew a warning from the United Nations that fighting near Torkham was endangering civilians and humanitarian workers, after a child was killed and an aid worker injured, according to the UN humanitarian office. Those casualties relate to the October incident, not to Sunday’s reported clash, for which no casualty figures have been given.
The wider backdrop is a sharp deterioration in relations between Islamabad and Kabul. Pakistan accuses the Taliban authorities of allowing militant groups, above all the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, to operate from Afghan territory and launch attacks inside Pakistan — a charge the Taliban reject. Earlier on Sunday, Pakistan’s information ministry said in a statement that terrorism remained a red line and that the Taliban’s inaction on cross-border militancy would no longer be tolerated, while the United States said it had heard Pakistan’s concerns about attacks from Afghan territory.
Border fighting has flared repeatedly since September, including exchanges of fire in the Kurram and Waziristan areas and Pakistani air strikes that followed attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Diplomatic efforts involving Qatar, Turkiye and China have so far failed to produce a breakthrough, and Russia has renewed an offer to mediate if both sides request it. The border crossings between the two countries have remained mostly closed through much of this period, with trade collapsing and ordinary movement heavily restricted.
For the people caught in the middle, the practical questions now are whether the crossing will reopen, whether humanitarian organisations can safely return to the area, and whether the return of migrants through Torkham will resume. Each depends on whether the two sides can agree, even informally, to stop firing and to keep the crossing area clear of new posts and checkpoints — the very issue that local sources say triggered Sunday’s clash.
Until official statements emerge, the picture remains incomplete: a fresh exchange of fire at a vital crossing, reported by two outlets citing local sources, with aid workers withdrawn, a migrant camp evacuated and returns disrupted, but no confirmed casualties and no public explanation from either side. That uncertainty is itself part of the story, because it leaves families waiting at the border and aid agencies unable to plan their next steps.
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