ISLAMABAD (AP) – Qatar’s Foreign Ministry announced Sunday that Afghanistan and Pakistan, embroiled in more than a week of fighting that has left dozens dead and hundreds injured, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire. This is the deadliest crisis between the two countries in years.
According to a statement from Qatar, the two sides agreed to establish a mechanism to strengthen lasting peace and stability and to hold follow-up talks in the coming days to ensure the sustainability of the ceasefire. Qatar and Turkey mediated the negotiations, the statement added.
Violence has escalated between neighboring countries since the beginning of this month, with each country saying it was responding to aggression from the other side. Afghanistan denies harboring militants carrying out attacks in its border areas.
Pakistan is grappling with a surge in insurgency since 2021, when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan and returned to power.
The fighting threatened to further destabilize the region, where groups such as Islamic State and al-Qaida are trying to re-emerge.
A 48-hour ceasefire aimed at suspending hostilities expired on Friday night. Hours later, Pakistan attacked across the border.
A Pakistani security official confirmed to The Associated Press that the attacks took place in two districts in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province.
The target was a hideout belonging to the militant group Hafiz Gul Bahadur, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. One official said the operation was a direct response to the previous day’s suicide bombing of a security forces facility in Mir Ali, Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtankhwa province.
Dozens of armed fighters were killed in the Pakistan Air Force’s air strikes, with no civilian casualties.
However, Afghan officials said the airstrike killed at least 10 civilians, including women, children and a local cricket player who was playing a match nearby.
The attack prompted the domestic cricket board to boycott the upcoming series in Pakistan. Cricket’s world governing body, the International Cricket Council, said it was “saddened and appalled by the tragic deaths of three young and promising Afghan players.”
Thousands of people attended funeral prayers in Paktika on Saturday. They sat outside as loudspeakers broadcast sermons and denunciations.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief government spokesperson, earlier criticized the “repeated crimes committed by the Pakistani military and violations of Afghanistan’s sovereignty.”
Such actions are considered provocative and a “deliberate attempt” to prolong the conflict, he added.
The two countries share a 2,611-kilometre (1,622-mile) border known as the Durand Line, which Afghanistan does not recognize.
Pakistan also accuses its nuclear-armed neighbor and rival India of supporting militant groups without providing any evidence.
Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir urged Afghans to choose “mutual security over constant violence and progress over hardline obscurity.”
“The Taliban must rein in their proxies who have sanctuary in Afghanistan,” he told an audience at the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, as high-level delegations from both countries arrived in the Qatari capital for negotiations on Saturday.
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Associated Press writers Abdul Kahal Afghan in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Sajjad Tarakzai in Islamabad, and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
