Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to an ‘immediate ceasefire’ at talks in Doha, Qatar said Sunday, after at least 10 Afghans were killed in Pakistani air strikes that broke an earlier truce.
For more than a week, the South Asian neighbours have engaged in bloody border clashes — their worst conflict since the return of the Taliban government in 2021.
A 48-hour truce briefly put a stop to the fighting, which has killed dozens of troops and civilians, until Friday’s air strikes.
After peace talks in Doha, Qatar’s foreign ministry said early Sunday that ‘the two sides agreed to an immediate ceasefire and the establishment of mechanisms to consolidate lasting peace and stability between the two countries’.
They also agreed to follow-up meetings in the coming days to ensure the ceasefire, the foreign ministry added.
Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Asif confirmed that a ceasefire agreement had been reached and said the two sides would meet again in Istanbul on October 25.
‘Terrorism on Pakistani soil conducted from Afghanistan will immediately stop. Both neighbouring countries will respect each other’s sovereignty,’ Asif posted on social media.
Afghan defence minister Mohammed Yaqub said both sides had ‘concluded that each country will respect the other’.
‘We will not violate the other’s rights, will not support hostile actions against the other, and no party or group will be allowed to harm the security of the other country or attack it,’ he said.
The defence ministers posted a picture on X shaking hands after the signing.
Michael Kugelman, a leading South Asia analyst, said ‘the Taliban have no interest in an all-out conflict that would pit them against a vastly superior military force’.
‘That gives them a strong incentive to agree to a long ceasefire,’ he said, though he warned that the risks of escalation ‘remain high’.
Security issues lie at the heart of the clashes.
Since the Taliban returned to power, Pakistan has witnessed a dramatic spike in militant attacks, mainly near its 2,600-kilometre border with Afghanistan.
Analysts say Islamist fighters have been emboldened by the neighbouring insurgency’s success following the withdrawal of US forces in 2021.
Islamabad alleges that hostile groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, operate from ‘sanctuaries’ in Afghanistan, a charge the Taliban government routinely denies.
Kugelman said it was the Taliban’s ‘lack of action’ on those alleged groups ‘that provoked Pakistani military strikes and triggered the recent crisis’.
The cross-border violence flared on October 11, days after explosions rocked Kabul during an unprecedented visit by the Taliban’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi to India, Pakistan’s archrival.
The Taliban then launched a deadly offensive along parts of its southern border with Pakistan, prompting Islamabad to vow a strong response.
Ahead of the Doha talks, a senior Taliban official said that Pakistan had bombed three locations in Paktika province late Friday, and warned that Kabul would retaliate.
A hospital official in Paktika said that 10 civilians, including two children, were killed and 12 others wounded. Three cricket players were among the dead.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote on X that their forces had been ordered to hold fire ‘to maintain the dignity and integrity of its negotiating team’.
Saadullah Torjan, a minister in Spin Boldak in Afghanistan’s south, said: ‘For now, the situation is returning to normal.’
‘But there is still a state of war, and people are afraid.’
