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01-11-2025
ANKARA: Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to extend a ceasefire for at least another week during talks in Turkiye, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The sides plan to meet again at a higher-level gathering in Istanbul on November 6 to finalize how the ceasefire will be implemented, the ministry said in a statement released on behalf of Pakistan, Afghanistan and mediators Turkiye and Qatar.
“All parties have agreed to put in place a monitoring and verification mechanism that will ensure maintenance of peace and imposing penalty on the violating party,” the statement read.
The two neighbors engaged in a weeklong border conflict earlier this month following explosions in Afghanistan, which the Afghan government blamed on Pakistan.
In the subsequent cross-border strikes, Pakistan’s military claimed it killed more than 200 Afghan fighters, while Afghanistan says it killed 58 Pakistani soldiers.
It was the most serious fighting between the two countries since the Taliban regained control of Kabul in 2021.
After the skirmishes, mediation by Qatar and Turkiye led to a ceasefire signed by the defence ministers of Pakistan and Afghanistan on October 19 in Doha.
The two nations which share a 2,600-kilometre (1,600-mile) frontier began a second round of talks in Istanbul on Saturday, which broke down Wednesday when both parties failed to reach a consensus on Islamabad’s central demand that Kabul crack down on Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, an armed group often called the Pakistan Taliban or TTP, which has been long accused by Pakistan of carrying out deadly attacks inside its territory.
The Afghan government has consistently denied that it provides safe haven for the group. Talks resumed on Thursday, leading to the agreement to maintain the ceasefire until a new round of talks on November 6.
Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid issued a statement confirming the conclusion of the talks and saying both sides had agreed to continue discussions in future meetings. Pakistan did not immediately comment.
While a ceasefire remains in place, the border between the two countries has been closed for more than two weeks, leading to mounting losses for traders in the region.
In Kandahar on the Afghan side, Nazir Ahmed, a cloth trader, told media both countries “will bear losses.”
“Our nation is tired and their nation is also tired,” the 35-year-old said Wednesday.
Abdul Jabbar, a vehicle spare parts trader in the Pakistani border town of Chaman, said “trade suffers greatly”.
“Both countries face losses, both are Islamic nations,” he told media.
Last week, in fresh clashes near the border with Afghanistan have killed at least five Pakistani soldiers and 25 fighters, Pakistan’s army says, even as the two countries hold peace talks in Istanbul.
The Pakistani military said armed men attempted to cross from Afghanistan into Kurram and North Waziristan on Friday and Saturday, accusing the Taliban authorities of failing to act against armed groups operating from Afghan territory.
It said on Sunday that the attempted infiltrations raised questions over Kabul’s commitment to tackling “terrorism emanating from its soil”.
Afghanistan’s Taliban government has not commented on the latest clashes, but has repeatedly rejected accusations of harboring armed fighters and instead accuses Pakistan of violating Afghan sovereignty with air strikes.
Delegations from both countries arrived in Istanbul, Turkiye on Saturday for talks aimed at preventing a return to full-scale conflict. The meeting comes days after Qatar and Turkiye brokered a ceasefire in Doha to halt the most serious border fighting since the Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
