ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Wednesday its forces destroyed seven Afghan border posts after Taliban troops fired on civilians, rejecting Kabul’s account of the latest clash as relations deteriorate over cross-border militancy.

The fighting took place at Angoor Adda, a crossing linking Pakistan’s northwestern South Waziristan district with Afghanistan’s Paktika province. Pakistani officials said shelling on Tuesday night killed one civilian, wounded five others and damaged shops.

The neighbors have exchanged fire repeatedly this year, while Pakistan has conducted strikes inside Afghanistan against what it describes as militant targets. Islamabad accuses Kabul of sheltering the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, which attacks Pakistani civilians and security forces. Afghan authorities deny allowing their territory to be used for such attacks.

Pakistani forces “inflicted heavy casualties to their men in addition to material losses including destruction of seven posts,” the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said on its fact-checking account on X.

The ministry accused Afghan forces of initiating “unprovoked fire and mortar shelling on unarmed civilians on Pakistani side.” It gave no numerical breakdown of the claimed Afghan casualties.

Afghanistan’s Taliban-run defense ministry offered a conflicting account, saying Pakistani forces launched four drone strikes against border facilities and nearby security installations at Angoor Adda, prompting Afghan troops to retaliate.

It claimed Pakistani soldiers were killed and wounded and military facilities damaged, while denying casualties among Afghan forces. It provided no precise casualty figures.

The competing accounts of who initiated the fighting, military casualties and damage to border posts could not be independently verified.

Pakistan’s Lower South Waziristan administration had earlier reported that a mortar round struck a civilian home, killing one person and injuring five others. It said Pakistani forces responded to the shelling.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi condemned the incident and backed the military’s response.

“Pakistan will never tolerate attacks on its people or violations of its sovereignty,” he said.

The confrontation adds to a dispute that has disrupted diplomatic engagement and cross-border commerce. Pakistan has demanded verifiable action against militant groups operating from Afghanistan, while Taliban officials maintain that Islamabad should address its security problems within its own borders.