Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to a new fast ceasefire throughout talks in Doha, Qatar’s foreign ministry said early Sunday, following more than a week of deadly clashes which continued regardless of an earlier truce.
Both nations had agreed to cease combating and work towards “lasting peace and stability” in talks mediated by Qatar and Turkey, the ministry mentioned.
The announcement got here after Afghanistan’s Taliban management accused Pakistan of conducting a more airstrikes on its territory, in an continuation of the worst combating between the 2 nations for the reason that Taliban returned to energy in Kabul in 2021.
Islamabad and Kabul agreed to additional talks within the coming days, “to ensure the sustainability of the ceasefire and to verify its implementation in a credible and lasting manner.”
Violence between the neighbors alongside their disputed, 1,600-mile border broke out on October 10 after Afghanistan first accused Pakistan of conducting airstrikes in Kabul and launched retaliatory assaults. Pakistan has lengthy accused Kabul of harboring the Pakistani Taliban militant group (often known as the TTP), which its Afghan namesake denies.
The nations agreed to a 48-hour ceasefire Wednesday after days of clashes, which killed dozens of fighters and civilians on either side. The ceasefire was prolonged Friday amid plans for mediation, however violence continued.
Ahead of the talks Saturday, the Taliban confirmed a high-level delegation led by Afghanistan’s protection minister had departed for Doha. It accused Pakistani forces of conducting airstrikes on civilian areas within the border province of Paktika.
While Afghanistan “reserves the right to respond to these violations, in order to maintain the dignity and integrity of its negotiating team, its forces have been instructed to refrain from undertaking new military operations at this time,” its spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid mentioned in a assertion.
Pakistan’s info minister mentioned that its safety forces had struck “verified” camps of Islamist militants alongside the border, and rejected that it was concentrating on Afghan civilians.
“All speculations and assertions being made regarding targeting of civilians are false and meant to generate support for terrorist groups operating from inside Afghanistan,” Attaullah Tarar mentioned in a post to X Saturday.
Tarar mentioned the militants had tried to assault Pakistan through the ceasefire interval, however that Pakistan had repelled the assaults, killing more than 100 fighters. NCS couldn’t confirm the dying toll or any targets.
The Afghanistan Cricket Board mentioned eight individuals, together with three cricket gamers, have been killed in a Pakistani assault in Paktika, in a post to X Friday.
The gamers had been “targeted during a gathering” after returning house from a pleasant cricket match, the board mentioned.
Expressing its “deepest sorrow and grief,” the board introduced Afghanistan would pull out of the three-nation T20I cricket match subsequent month involving Pakistan, in addition to Sri Lanka.
The combating between the 2 nations in current weeks marks the deadliest escalation for the reason that US withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, and may sign a new interval of instability for the once-friendly neighbors.
Pakistan was one of the primary backers of the Taliban after its ouster by NATO troops in 2001, and throughout its subsequent insurgency towards the US-backed Afghan authorities.
But the TTP has re-emerged as one of Pakistan’s greatest nationwide safety threats, conducting 600 assaults towards Pakistani forces prior to now yr, in accordance to a current report by the impartial nonprofit Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED).
Since the current clashes broke out, not less than three dozen civilians have been killed and a whole lot wounded in Afghanistan, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said Thursday.