Pakistan and Afghanistan's Taliban government have agreed a temporary 48-hour ceasefire after a new round of border clashes and reports of Pakistani air strikes in Kabul and Kandahar. The pause came after a day of escalating violence that both sides said the other had triggered.
The BBC reported that Pakistani state media described air strikes on targets in Kandahar province and in Kabul, while Taliban sources told the BBC that Kabul had been hit by two strikes. Taliban officials did not publicly confirm a Pakistani military role and instead posted that an oil tanker and a generator had exploded. Across the capital, black smoke was seen rising and some streets were sealed off. Kabul's emergency surgical centre said it received 40 people after the explosions, including five dead on arrival.
Earlier in the day, the Taliban said 12 civilians had been killed and more than 100 wounded by Pakistani firing. Pakistan's military said it had killed 15 to 20 Afghan Taliban fighters in the Spin Boldak border district, while the Taliban claimed Pakistani soldiers had suffered heavy losses. None of the casualty counts could be independently verified.
The new ceasefire followed several days of mounting tension that began with explosions in Afghanistan last week, which Kabul blamed on Islamabad. Pakistan has long accused the Afghan Taliban of allowing militants from Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan to operate from Afghan soil. The Taliban deny that. As the fighting widened, each side pushed its own narrative on social media and in official statements, trying to persuade domestic audiences that the other had taken the heavier losses.
The border violence also spread beyond Spin Boldak. In another overnight clash on Pakistan's north-western frontier, the military said 25 to 30 Taliban and Pakistani Taliban fighters were suspected to have been killed. Local witnesses told the BBC that clashes in Spin Boldak began around 04:00 local time and lasted for hours, with drones and jets flying overhead. A doctor there counted seven bodies and 36 injured, including men, women and children, while a local official said hundreds of families had been displaced.
The ceasefire was described by Pakistan as an opportunity for constructive dialogue. The Taliban said their forces had been told to respect the truce unless there was further aggression. Calls for de-escalation also came from China and Russia, and the UN's special rapporteur on Afghanistan urged maximum restraint and protection of civilians. The immediate test is whether either side can keep the fragile pause from collapsing into another round of cross-border retaliation.
