October 18, 2025—In a heartbreaking escalation of cross-border hostilities, a Pakistani airstrike on a suspected Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) compound in Afghanistan’s Paktika province has claimed the lives of three promising Afghan cricketers, prompting the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) to immediately withdraw from an upcoming tri-series in Pakistan. The attack, which occurred early on October 18, 2025, in the Laka district near the Durand Line, also killed five other civilians and injured 12, according to Afghan health officials.