In the night from Friday to Saturday, new fighting broke out on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. According to a medical source from the BBC four people died in an Afghan hospital. On the Pakistani side, three were reportedly injured.
A large number of Afghan residents fled the town of Spin Boldak on foot and in vehicles. People from surrounding towns also fled for fear the fighting would spread, the BBC said.
Pakistan and the Taliban (the ruler in Afghanistan) reached a ceasefire after deadly border clashes in October. Since then, sporadic fighting has broken out and both sides accuse each other of violating the truce.
A spokesman for the Pakistani government, Mosharraf Zaidi, charged a statement on X the Taliban of ‘unprovoked shooting along the border’. “Our armed forces responded immediately, appropriately and intensively,” Zaidi said. According to the BBC, a Taliban spokesperson reported that Pakistan had carried out attacks and that Afghanistan was forced to respond.
Pakistani Taliban
The relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan has been tense for a long time. For example, Afghanistan claims that Pakistan is behind explosions in the capital Kabul. These are said to have been part of an anti-terrorist campaign conducted by the Pakistani army in their own country.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of supporting the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an organization that undermines security and stability in Pakistan. The Afghan Taliban and TTP were founded independently of each other and Kabul denies any support to the TTP. However, according to a UN report, a TTP leader received financial support from Afghanistan in the summer of 2024. Violence under the authority of the TTP also increased in Pakistan after the Taliban took power in Kabul in 2021.
In October, violence between the two sides reached a peak on the border. Dozens of people on both sides were killed. Ultimately, the conflict led to a ceasefire brokered by Turkey and Qatar.
Although peace talks in Saudi Arabia ended without a breakthrough last weekend, both sides decided to continue the truce. “Neither of us has any interest in going to full-on war,” said PhD researcher Christopher Sands in an earlier interview with NRC.
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Retaliation for retaliation, tension along the border and support for terrorists: what went wrong between Afghanistan and Pakistan?
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