Kabul and Islamabad must sort out disputed issues quickly

 
Pakistan has launched air attacks inside Afghanistan, killing at least 10 people and breaking a ceasefire that had brought two days of relative calm to the border after an intensive period of bloodshed, Afghan officials say, reports Al Jazeera.

The 48-hour truce paused nearly a week of bloody border clashes that killed dozens of soldiers and civilians on both sides.

“Pakistan has broken the ceasefire and bombed three locations in Paktika” province late on Friday, a senior Taliban official told the AFP news agency, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Afghanistan will retaliate.” Ten civilians were killed and 12 others were wounded in the attacks, a provincial hospital official told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that two children were among the dead.

In a statement released after the attacks, an Afghan government spokesperson said officials from both countries will hold crisis talks in Doha on Saturday. “As promised, negotiations with the Pakistani side will take place today in Doha,” Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.

A high-level Afghan delegation, led by the Minister of Defence Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob, has left for Doha, he said. Meanwhile, Pakistani state TV reported that Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and intelligence chief General Asim Malik will be heading to Doha on Saturday for talks with the Afghan Taliban.

Earlier on Saturday, the Afghanistan Cricket Board said in a statement that three players who were in the region for a tournament were killed in the latest air strikes alongside five other people “in a cowardly attack carried out by the Pakistani regime” and said seven others were injured.

The ACB said in a post on social media on Saturday that the cricketers were “targeted during a gathering” in Urgun district when they returned home after playing a friendly cricket match in Sharana, the capital of Paktika province.

“The ACB considers this a great loss for Afghanistan’s sports community, its athletes, and the cricketing family,” the ACB said. It also said it was withdrawing from the upcoming Tri-Nation T20I Series involving Pakistan, scheduled for next month.

The fighting between the two countries in recent weeks marks the deadliest escalation since the US withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, and could signal a new period of instability for the once-friendly neighbors. Pakistan was one of the main backers of the Taliban after its ouster by NATO troops in 2001, and during its subsequent insurgency against the US-backed Afghan government.

But the TTP has re-emerged as one of Pakistan’s biggest national security threats, conducting 600 attacks against Pakistani forces in the past year, according to a recent report by the independent nonprofit Armed Conflict Location & Event Data.