Pakistan-Afghanistan 2026

1-7 April
Afghanistan, Pakistan hold ‘useful’ peace talks in China, says Kabul
By Mohammad Yunus Yawar
(Reuters) – Afghanistan and Pakistan made “useful” progress in talks in China to resolve ​the conflict that broke out between the South Asian neighbours last ‌October, the Taliban administration in Kabul said on Tuesday.
The two Muslim countries have been negotiating to end hostilities in the northwestern Chinese city of Urumqi since last week.
China, which shares stretches of ​its western border with both countries, has been mediating to help ​end the worst conflict between the allies-turned-foes since the Taliban returned ⁠to power in 2021.

Pakistan, Afghanistan hold talks in China to end months of conflict
China has been trying to mediate a negotiated settlement to the conflict between the allies-turned-foes.
(Al Jazeera) Pakistan and Afghanistan have confirmed they are holding talks in China aimed at ending the worst conflict between the South Asian neighbours since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021.
Senior officials from both countries are holding preliminary talks in the northwestern Chinese city of Urumqi to try to secure a ceasefire to end months of cross-border attacks, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said on Thursday.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harbouring fighters who carry out attacks inside Pakistan, especially the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP. The group is separate from but allied with the Afghan Taliban, which took over Afghanistan in 2021 following the chaotic withdrawal of United States-led troops. Kabul denies the charge, saying these fighters are Pakistan’s domestic problem.
Following China’s request for talks, Afghanistan’s Taliban government said it had sent a “mid-level delegation” to Urumqi.
Pakistan described the negotiations as “working-level talks”.
Beijing deployed a special envoy to try to broker a deal last month, but the diplomatic effort was followed by Pakistani strikes on a Kabul rehab centre that prompted international condemnation.
More than 400 people were killed in the attack, according to Afghan officials. Islamabad said the strike targeted military installations and “terrorist support infrastructure”.
The two sides then announced a pause in fighting to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, at the request of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkiye.
While addressing hostilities with its neighbour, Pakistan has also been engaged in a flurry of diplomacy to try to bring Washington and Tehran to the table and end their war.
China has backed Pakistan’s efforts, aligning itself with the aims of Gulf countries affected by the spread of the conflict in the region.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/balochistan-afghanistan-iran-is-pakistan-running-out-of-strategic-room/articleshow/129981854.cms
(Times of India) Pakistan is once again caught between allies and adversaries. Islamabad finds itself pulled between powerful partners and dangerous neighbourhood realities, between competing risks. As war between Iran and the Gulf states continues to spiral, Islamabad’s response has been strikingly cautious. Officials insist there is “no question” of rushing to Saudi Arabia’s defence, even as they reaffirm a long standing strategic pact with Riyadh.Time and again, it has aligned with stronger powers in conflicts that promised influence, aid or strategic leverage, only to face instability and blowback at home.
Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban governments have resumed talks in China, which is mediating between the two sides to broker a durable ceasefire after more than a month of fighting, two Pakistani officials said Wednesday.
(The World) Representatives from both countries are meeting in Urumqi, in northern China, the officials told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. China has not commented. Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs neither confirmed nor denied the latest development. The talks in Urumqi are seen as a potential relief for millions of people in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, the sources in Pakistan said, adding they may last for days and were only the beginning of a peace process between the two sides. The latest round of talks began after both sides accepted China’s offer to mediate and the two sides will continue their talks on Thursday to end the fighting. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of providing a haven for militants who carry out attacks inside Pakistan, especially for the Pakistani Taliban. The group is separate but allied with the Afghan Taliban, which took over Afghanistan in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of US-led troops. Kabul denies the charge.

27 March
What’s behind Pakistan’s war with Afghanistan’s Taliban government?
Michael Semple, Visiting Research Professor, The Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace Security and Justice, Queen’s University Belfast
(The Conversation) Pakistan has been at war with Afghanistan’s Taliban regime for just under one month. Yet the conflict, which was officially declared by Pakistan the day before the US and Israel launched their strikes on Iran, has been overshadowed by events in the Gulf.
Pakistan and the Taliban have made widely differing claims regarding the numbers of people killed on either side. The rising casualty toll only briefly captured global attention when a Pakistani airstrike hit a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul on March 16, killing more than 100 people.
But the three weeks of fighting, with a brief pause for the Eid al-Fitr holiday between March 20 and 23, confirm for anyone who still doubted it, that the schism between Pakistan and the Taliban is real. Of course there are complex geopolitical and regional interests at play. India provides some support for the Taliban while China tries to balance its alliance with Pakistan and its more tentative relationship with the Taliban. But the conflict tells us more about the politics of the Taliban movement itself and its relationship with Pakistan.

20 March
The New War in Afghanistan
Alexander Palmer
The conflict between Pakistan and the Taliban might escalate. It might also be the new normal.
(Lawfare) While the world focuses on the joint U.S.-Israel war against Iran, another conflict is escalating right next door. In the early hours of Feb. 26, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif posted online that the country was at “open war” with Afghanistan’s Taliban government. The statement accompanied a series of air strikes in Kabul and Kandahar, as well as against targets in Paktia province.
In the weeks since Asif’s statement, Pakistan claims to have struck a variety of military and insurgent targets in Afghanistan, while the Taliban claim that Pakistan has struck mainly civilian infrastructure. Meanwhile, the Taliban have attacked Pakistani border posts and claimed to have conducted incursions deeper into Pakistan, although Islamabad has disputed whether this has occurred. On March 13, the United Nations estimated that more than 75 civilians have been killed, but the bombing of an apparent drug rehabilitation clinic in Kabul during the night of March 16 has probably increased that total many times over. Taliban authorities have claimed that the air strike killed more than 400 people. The Taliban have also threatened retaliation for the attack, risking further escalation in the conflict. …
Pakistan has long seen Afghanistan as critical terrain for its security policy. Pakistan’s interest in Afghanistan is usually described as “strategic depth”—territory into which its forces could withdraw in case of an attack from India. Islamabad also wants a friendly government in Kabul to minimize the threat Pakistan faces from the west and allow it to focus on India. For decades, Pakistan has often pursued its Afghanistan policy through non-state proxies. An important aspect of this policy has been to direct militant groups west toward Afghanistan to prevent them moving east into Punjab.
The Taliban have been Pakistan’s most effective proxy in Afghanistan since Islamabad helped facilitate the group’s rise in the 1990s. During the first period of Taliban rule, Pakistan was one of only three countries to recognize the Taliban regime. After the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan, Pakistan continued to support the Taliban with funding, training, and safe haven.

17-18 March
Pakistan to pause Afghan strikes for Eid, two days after deadly Kabul attack
(The Guardian) Five-day cessation announced as mass funeral held for some of hundreds of victims of airstrike on rehab centre
Pakistan hopes steep cost of airstrikes on Taliban targets will protect against terror attacks
Saeed Shah
Experts say attacks on Afghanistan are ‘defensive, not offensive’ but carry a risk of spiralling cycle of violence
Afghanistan says 400 killed in strike by Pakistan on Kabul hospital
Deputy government spokesman says death toll has reached 400 people ‘so far’ as Islamabad denies targeting facility for drug addicts
Hundreds were feared dead after a strike on a hospital treating drug users in the Afghan capital of Kabul, which officials from Afghanistan blamed on the Pakistani military.
Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said the death toll had “so far” reached 400 people, while about 250 people had been reported injured. He said most of those killed and wounded were patients undergoing treatment at the facility.
Pakistan rejected the claim as false and misleading and said it “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure” on Monday night, dismissing allegations it had hit a civilian target.

15 March
Pakistan targets militant hideouts in Afghanistan as conflict continues
Afghan government reports zero casualties and accuses neighbouring country of wanting to ‘fuel the fire of war

4 March
Turkey’s Erdogan offers to try to revive a truce as Pakistan-Afghan border clashes enter sixth day
(The World) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan offered to mediate for a new ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan as border clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan entered their sixth day on Wednesday. The conflict erupted last week with Afghanistan launching attacks on Thursday in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes the previous weekend. Since then, Pakistan has carried out operations along the border and declared it was in an “open war” with Afghanistan, alarming the international community. The ongoing clashes ended an earlier ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey in October, when the two neighbors had again come close to a war. The truce, signed in Qatar at the time, was followed by six days of talks in Istanbul, which resulted in an agreement to extend the truce and hold a third round of negotiations in November. Since the latest fighting broke out, both sides have claimed inflicting heavy losses on each other in fighting that has mainly focused on Pakistan’s border regions in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and southwestern Balochistan province. Casualty reports have vastly conflicted. The border area — where militant groups, including al-Qaida and ISIS, are also active — is not accessible to the media.
8 November 2025
Pakistan says peace talks with Afghanistan are deadlocked despite mediation

3 March
‘Now they only deport’: Afghans trapped in Pakistan arrested and sent back after ‘open war’ breaks out
Journalists and activists who fled Taliban rule are living in fear as Pakistani police hunt and deport refugees after escalating cross-border clashes
(The Guardian) For the millions of Afghans living in Pakistan – many of them journalists, activists or former government officials who fled Taliban rule – the rising tension is translating into fear at their doorsteps.
Richard Bennett, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, says returning to their country will put them at “real risk of violent retaliatory attacks”.
Months of clashes have flared up since Thursday, when Afghanistan launched attacks along the frontier and Pakistani forces hit back across the border and with airstrikes on seven camps of the TTP.

2 March
Pakistan, Afghanistan show no signs of stepping back as fighting enters fifth day
By Mohammad Yunus Yawar and Asif Shahzad
– Fighting between Afghanistan and Pakistan enters fifth day
– Taliban claims to have destroyed Pakistani military assets
– Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harbouring insurgents
(Reuters) – Afghanistan and Pakistan said on Monday that their militaries had targeted each other’s posts across the border as their fighting entered a ​fifth day, fuelling instability in a region rocked by U.S.–Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s retaliation.
The intensity of the clashes, however, appeared ‌to be lower than when it began although there were no signs that the allies-turned-foes were seeking to step back and make peace.

26-27 February
Pakistan Declares ‘Open War’ With Afghanistan After Clashes
Takeaways by Bloomberg AI
Pakistan has declared “open war” on the Taliban regime in Kabul and sent waves of jets over its disputed border with Afghanistan.
The country’s military has lost patience with its one-time partners, the Taliban, after they failed to crack down on co-ideologues who believe in doing harm to Islamabad.
Pakistan’s actions have reunited its political class in support of the army, but have also made the broader region more unstable and potentially created an opportunity for armed groups to thrive.
Since Pakistan declared “open war” on the Taliban regime in Kabul last week, it has sent waves of jets over its disputed border with Afghanistan. It continued to do so even as Iran, which neighbors both countries, was attacked by the US and Israel and Israel and retaliated with drone and missile strikes across the region. It takes a particular kind of self-assuredness to push an already unstable situation to the brink. But, when it comes to its neighbors, Pakistan’s military has never run short of confidence.
Pakistan declares state of ‘open war’ after bombing major Afghan cities
(The Guardian) Wave of strikes comes after Taliban forces attack Pakistani border troops following earlier action from Islamabad
Pakistan declares state of ‘open war’ after bombing major Afghan cities
Wave of strikes comes after Taliban forces attack Pakistani border troops following earlier action from Islamabad
Jason Burke in London, Shah Meer Baloch in Islamabad and Kate Lamb in Sydney
Pakistan has bombed major cities in Afghanistan including the capital, Kabul, with Islamabad’s defence minister declaring that the hostile neighbours were in a state of “open war” as a cycle of retaliatory attacks escalated further.
Witnesses in Kabul and Kandahar, the southern Afghan city, reported explosions and jets overhead until dawn, while the Taliban government said later that Pakistani surveillance aircraft were still flying over Afghanistan.
The wave of attacks came after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops on Thursday night following earlier airstrikes by Islamabad.
Pakistan Strikes Afghanistan in ‘Open War’ Against Taliban Government
The airstrikes came hours after Afghan troops had attacked Pakistani border positions and follow months of worsening relations between the neighboring countries.
(NYT) Relations between the neighboring countries have deteriorated recently over Pakistan’s accusations that the Afghan government is harboring the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. The militant group has killed hundreds of Pakistani security personnel in recent years, and in November claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed a dozen people at a courthouse in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital.
11 November 2025
Pakistan ‘in a State of War’ After Explosion Kills 12 in Capital
An attack on a courthouse in Islamabad was the first major assault to hit Islamabad in more than a decade.

21 February
Pakistan strikes militant hideouts on Afghan border after surge in attacks
‘Intelligence-based, selective operations’ carried out against Pakistani Taliban camps, says information ministry
(The Guardian) The fighting comes as both countries have been bracing for the fallout on trade and the movement of people from potential U.S. military strikes in neighboring Iran, adding yet another layer of uncertainty in an area already on edge.