Pakistan's military said it intercepted and destroyed four rudimentary drones launched from Afghanistan into Balochistan, the country's southwestern province bordering Afghanistan, in the latest escalation between the two countries. The Inter-Services Public Relations directorate (ISPR), the Pakistani military's media wing, said the drones were immediately detected and neutralised using what it described as "sophisticated countermeasures," adding that all four hostile aerial platforms were successfully foiled. Pakistan warned that any further provocation would receive what it called "a befitting response."

The drone incident follows Pakistani airstrikes on Sunday targeting what Islamabad described as militant hideouts in Afghanistan's eastern Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces. Pakistan's information minister said 29 militants were killed in an operation responding to recent terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil. However, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan confirmed at least 28 civilians were killed in those strikes, the majority of them women and children, with Afghanistan putting the civilian death toll at 36 and the number of wounded above 160. Kabul described the strikes as a "cowardly act" and an "atrocity." The BBC said it could not independently verify casualty figures from either side.

The two countries have long been mired in a cycle of mutual accusations. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan's Taliban government of harbouring militant groups — including fighters who carry out attacks on Pakistani territory — a charge Kabul firmly rejects, calling the insurgency an internal Pakistani problem. The Taliban government, which has controlled Afghanistan since 2021, in turn accuses Islamabad of launching unprovoked strikes that kill civilians. Pakistan insists it only targets militants. The border region is also home to Baloch separatist fighters from groups such as the Balochistan Liberation Army, who are seeking autonomy or independence for the Baloch people.

The current flare-up comes despite a ceasefire the two sides agreed to in October following weeks of deadly clashes. Earlier this year, a Pakistani strike on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul killed hundreds, and separate airstrikes in June killed at least 26 people. The UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, speaking on Tuesday, expressed serious concern about the escalating violence and called for an immediate halt to military operations and a return to dialogue and diplomacy, stressing the need to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.

Why this matters: The Pakistan-Afghanistan border remains one of the world's most volatile frontiers, and the breakdown of the October ceasefire signals a dangerous new phase. With the Taliban government unrecognised internationally and under pressure domestically, and Pakistan facing persistent militant attacks on its own territory, the conditions for de-escalation remain fragile. International calls for restraint have so far done little to halt the cycle of strikes and counter-strikes, raising fears of a wider and more destructive conflict between the two nuclear-capable neighbours.