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KABUL – Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban government have paused their most intense cross-border clashes in years, following a ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey that ended days of deadly hostilities. Both sides pledged to respect each other’s territorial integrity and will reconvene in Istanbul later this week to discuss lasting peace measures.
The brief calm follows weeks of escalating violence triggered by Pakistani airstrikes on Kabul and Kandahar — operations Islamabad said targeted Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants allegedly sheltered by the Taliban. In response, Afghan forces struck Pakistani military posts along the volatile Durand Line, leaving dozens dead and hundreds wounded.
Despite the ceasefire, tensions remain dangerously high. Islamabad accuses the Taliban of aiding TTP militants seeking to replicate Afghanistan’s hardline Islamist rule in Pakistan — an allegation the Taliban deny. The clashes have exposed Pakistan’s long-standing dilemma: having nurtured the Taliban for decades as a strategic proxy, Islamabad now faces its former allies as a destabilizing threat on its western frontier.
Analysts warn that without a political breakthrough, the uneasy peace could unravel at any moment — reigniting a conflict that risks plunging both nations into deeper turmoil.
