The latest border clashes come amid claims from both Taliban and Pakistan that they have resolved the recent row over border fencing by agreeing that further work on the project that led to a tense situation would be done through consensus.
Pakistani security forces and the Afghan Taliban are still firing across the Durand Line. The latest incident took place on Friday in villages like Ganjgal, Sarkano and Kunar in Bajaur area. Various reports in the local media and videos tweeted by journalists showed the two sides firing at each other.
According to some reports, the firing continued for 30 minutes on Friday afternoon.
The firing started when a sniper, allegedly belonging to the Taliban, shot two Pakistani soldiers at a border where a fencing was being done. The Pakistani side retaliated by firing on border settlements, to which the Afghan side retaliated.
Local reports further stated that there were heavy clashes in the area, with many shells and artillery hitting the villagers.
Meanwhile, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Saturday claimed responsibility for the December 19 attack on federal minister Shibli Faraz at the Darra Adam Khel, in which his driver and bodyguard were injured.
The latest border clashes come amid claims by both the Taliban and Pakistan that they have settled a recent dispute over fencing along the border, agreeing that further work on the project that led to the tense situation will be done by consensus.
A senior official, who spoke to a group of journalists on Friday, said that it has been decided at the senior level that in future the issues related to the fence will be settled by mutual consent.
The official, however, did not specify at what level talks were held between Pakistan and the de facto Afghan government after Wednesday's incident, in which Taliban fighters barricaded border fences and snatched spools of barbed wire, the Dawn newspaper reported. .
The report said that Pakistan has been fencing the 2,600-km-long border with Afghanistan since 2017 to eliminate terrorist infiltration and smuggling despite strong opposition from the neighboring country.
Apart from the construction of a fence, the project also includes the construction of border posts and forts, and the creation of a new wing of the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force guarding the border.
The official said that 90 per cent of the fencing work has been completed.
Fencing has been a contentious issue in Pakistan-Afghanistan relations as Afghans dispute the boundary demarcation made during the colonial period.
While the Afghan Pashtuns define their country's borders on the basis of the Durand Line, Pakistan opposes this demarcation.
The differences over the status of the border have been so intense that in the past there have been several deadly clashes between the soldiers of the two countries.