ISLAMABAD: The military shot down eight drones near the Torkham border and Kohat after they entered Pakistani airspace from Afghanistan, security sources said on Wednesday.

According to the sources, four of the eight drones were shot down in areas adjacent to the Torkham border, while the remaining four were downed near Kohat.

“The armed forces and the ‘Shaheens’ of the Pakistan Air Force professionally thwarted the Afghan Taliban regime’s cowardly attempt to target public areas,” security sources said.

Earlier, they said two “rudimentary” drones had been brought down using “soft-kill” methods about seven kilometres from Kohat city. They said the armed forces’ air defence systems remained on round-the-clock alert and were maintaining vigilance against “all threats” from Afghanistan.

Security sources say air defence systems are alert round the clock

“This incursion serves as yet another proof of the Afghan Taliban regime’s direct support and patronage of terrorists,” security sources said.

Later, security sources said the wreckage of the destroyed drones was being recovered. Last night’s exchange of fire in Kurram sector and Wednesday’s drone incursion “demonstrated the state of the Afghan Taliban’s panic and disarray,” security sources added.

The development comes two days after Pakistan, in response to recent terrorist attacks

in KP, conducted “calibrated” airstrikes in the border region with Afghanistan against terrorist hideouts.

The air strikes came after a major attack in the old Police Lines in KP’s Kohat claimed 23 lives and injured about 100 others. Eight terrorists were killed during an overnight clearance operation launched to clear the area.

A statement from the information ministry had said that over 28 terrorists were eliminated in the strikes. “It is a matter of grave concern that Afghanistan continues to remain a hub of terrorism,” the ministry had said, specifying that the “threat to Pakistan emanates from Afghanistan”.

Before the airstrikes, security forces conducted a “well-planned intelligence-based ground operation” on September 20 against a group of terrorists in Kohat and Hangu, the ministry said. Nine terrorists were eliminated in the engagement.

In July, the Afghan Taliban regime launched four rudimentary drones across the border into Balochistan, which were shot down by security forces. Two drones were also shot down in June in Qila Abdullah and Chagai districts.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2026