T Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban government say they have agreed a temporary ceasefire after fresh border clashes and reported Pakistani air strikes on Kabul and Kandahar.
Both sides claimed the other requested the 48-hour ceasefire, which Pakistan said took effect from 13:00 GMT on Wednesday.
Earlier a Taliban spokesman said 12 civilians had been killed and more than 100 wounded by Pakistani firing. Both sides claimed the other suffered heavy casualties. None of the deaths could be independently confirmed.
Violence has flared since explosions rocked Afghanistan last week, which Kabul blamed on Islamabad. The Taliban deny claims they are harbouring militants targeting Pakistan. Wednesday started with each side accusing the other of initiating the deadly clashes.
Pakistan’s military said its forces had killed “15-20 Afghan
Taliban” and injured many in Spin Boldak border district. The Taliban government spokesman said numerous Pakistani soldiers had been killed. Then, later in the day explosions in Kabul and Kandahar ratcheted up tensions. Within in an hour, Pakistan announced the ceasefire. “During this period, both sides will make sincere efforts to find a positive solution to this complex but solvable issue through constructive dialogue,” its Foreign Office said.
The Taliban government spokesman said Afghan forces had been instructed to respect the ceasefire “as long as no one commits aggression”. Pakistani state media reported its armed forces had carried out air strikes on targets in Kandahar province and Kabul.
There has been no public acknowledgement from the Pakistani military and no official confirmation from the Taliban government, whose spokesman posted on X that an oil tanker and a generator had exploded, without linking the blasts to fighting with Pakistan. Wednesday started with each side accusing the other of initiating the deadly clashes.
Pakistan’s military said its forces had killed “15-20 Afghan Taliban” and injured many in Spin Boldak border district. The Taliban government spokesman said numerous Pakistani soldiers had been killed.
Then, later in the day explosions in Kabul and Kandahar ratcheted up tensions. Within in an hour, Pakistan announced the ceasefire.
“During this period, both sides will make sincere efforts to find a positive solution to this complex but solvable issue through constructive dialogue,” its Foreign Office said.
The Taliban government spokesman said Afghan forces had been instructed to respect the ceasefire “as long as no one commits aggression”. Pakistani state media reported its armed forces had carried out air strikes on targets in Kandahar province and Kabul.
There has been no public acknowledgement from the Pakistani military and no official confirmation from the Taliban government, whose spokesman posted on X that an oil tanker and a generator had exploded, without linking the blasts to fighting with Pakistan.
Taliban government sources, however, told the BBC Kabul had been hit by two air strikes. Plumes of black smoke were seen rising above the capital and the Taliban authorities sealed off some streets.
Kabul’s emergency’s surgical centre said it had received 40 people after the explosions – five were dead on arrival. The two sides are not only fighting for the upper hand on the border, but on social media, trying to convince the public that their side is inflicting more damage.
The latest fighting comes after intense border clashes over the weekend, when the Taliban claimed to have killed 58 members of the Pakistani military and Islamabad said it killed 200 “Taliban and affiliated terrorists”. The BBC was unable to independently verify the death tolls provided by each side.
Videos purportedly of the fighting and its aftermath have been shared online and on messaging groups, including footage claiming to be of those killed and grainy shots from night vision cameras claiming to be of check posts destroyed. The videos have not been verified by the BBC. A source in Spin Boldak in Afghanistan told the BBC that clashes broke out on around 04:00 local time (23:30 GMT on Tuesday). Another local in Spin Boldak, who lives about one kilometre away from the border crossing, told BBC the “very heavy clashes continued for almost five hours”.
Source: .bbc.com/news
