Islamabad: In a pivotal move to de-escalate mounting tensions, Afghanistan and Pakistan have committed to an immediate ceasefire, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry announced on Sunday. The agreement caps over a week of fierce border skirmishes that claimed dozens of lives and left hundreds more injured.
According to the Qatari statement, the nations will now set up frameworks to foster enduring peace and stability, with subsequent discussions slated for the near future to safeguard the truce’s longevity. High-level delegations from both countries convened in Doha for these negotiations, facilitated by Qatar and Turkey amid what has been described as the most severe confrontation between the neighbors in years.
The talks, spearheaded by each side’s defense ministers, centered on urgent steps to curb cross-border terrorism originating from Afghanistan and to reinstate calm along the frontier, as outlined by Pakistani officials.
Mutual accusations have fueled the unrest, with both sides claiming defensive actions against provocations from the other. Afghanistan firmly rejects allegations of sheltering militants responsible for assaults in Pakistani border regions.
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Amid rising concerns over regional instability—particularly with threats from resurgent groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaida—influential players such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar have pressed for restraint.
The accord follows the collapse of a 48-hour truce that lapsed on Friday evening, prompting swift retaliatory strikes from Pakistan into Afghan territory just hours later. Pakistani security sources, speaking anonymously to The Associated Press on Saturday due to briefing restrictions, verified airstrikes targeting two districts in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province.
The operations zeroed in on strongholds of the Hafiz Gul Bahadur faction, serving as reprisal for a suicide bombing the previous day at a security outpost in Mir Ali, located in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Officials reported that the air raids eliminated numerous combatants without any civilian casualties.
Afghan authorities, however, decried the bombings for claiming at least 10 noncombatant lives, among them women, children, and members of a local cricket team. The incident led Afghanistan’s cricket board to withdraw from an impending series in Pakistan.
Thousands gathered in Paktika on Saturday for funeral rites, enduring open-air ceremonies where amplified addresses denounced the strikes. Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban administration’s primary spokesperson, lambasted the “ongoing offenses by Pakistani troops and encroachments on Afghanistan’s territorial integrity” in an official release, labeling them as inflammatory efforts to extend the strife.
The contentious 2,611-kilometer (1,622-mile) Durand Line, which Afghanistan has historically refused to acknowledge, underscores the enduring frontier disputes. Pakistan, meanwhile, contends with escalating insurgent threats in its Afghan-adjacent zones and levels unproven claims against nuclear-armed rival India for supporting insurgent elements.
On Saturday, Pakistan’s army chief, Asim Munir, addressed cadets at the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, imploring Afghans to prioritize “shared protection against endless strife and advancement beyond rigid extremism.” He stressed that the Taliban must curb proxies operating from Afghan bases.
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