Tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan escalated for the second time in a week on Wednesday after overnight border clashes reportedly led to the deaths of dozens of civilians as well as troops, an intense fight that later came to a halt with both agreeing to a 48-hour ceasefire but attributing the same to the “insistence” of the other side.

Neighbours Pakistan and Afghanistan have not been the best of friends since the return of the hardline Taliban regime in the latter after the US troops exited in 2021.

main point of contention between the two is Pakistan’s accusation on Afghanistan of being a safe haven for militants – of an outfit called Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in particular – who it says plan Pakistani assaults from Afghan soil. Afghanistan denies these allegations.

Pak-Afghan border clashes – What happened this week

On the last weekend (October 11), Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities launched a revenge strike on Pakistan, saying it was in response to the explosions in Kabul on October 7 it blamed Islamabad for.

The first explosions that struck Afghanistan last week, which the Taliban blamed on Pakistan, hit while Afghanistan’s foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was on an unprecedented visit to India.

The weekend Taliban attack sparked response fire from Pakistan and led to dozens of fatalities on both sides. The clashes were paused after Qatar and Saudi Arabia intervened.

In the weekend clashes, casualty figures released by both sides differed. The Taliban government said on Sunday that 58 Pakistani soldiers were killed and around 30 were injured in the clashes, while nine Taliban forces were lost lives. The Pakistani military, meanwhile, later said 23 of its soldiers and more than 200 Taliban and affiliated troops were killed. HT.com was unable to independently verify the casualty figures.

Exchanges of fire erupted again on Wednesday with both sides accusing each other of launching ground attacks. While the Afghanistan said more over a dozen of its civilians were killed and injured in attacks by Pakistani forces launched in Spin Boldak, the other side denied launching the offensive, saying its civilians were wounded in assaults by Taliban fighters in the Chaman district, opposite to Spin Boldak.

Pakistan’s military said two assaults by Afghanistan’s Taliban on major border posts in the southwest and northwest were repelled, with about 20 Taliban fighters killed in attacks launched near Spin Boldak on the Afghan side of the frontier in southern Kandahar province early on Wednesday, according to AFP news agency. The Pakistan military said about 30 more were likely killed in overnight clashes along its northwest border.

While Afghan officials on Wednesday told the AFP news agency that 15 civilians were dead and dozens were injured in the fresh violence, the toll net day was increased to 40 civilians.

Separately, fighting between Pakistani troops and militants in Pakistan’s border district of Orakzai killed six paramilitary soldiers and nine militants, two security officials told Reuters.

A 48-hour ceasefire that both sides the other asked for

The fighting on Wednesday stopped after the Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to a temporary, 48-hour ceasefire that this time none of the two sides attributed Qatar or the Saudi Arabia for but said was on the insistence of the opponent.

Before the ceasefire Pakistani security sources cited in reports such as AFP and Reuters had said the military targeted an armed group with “precision strikes” in Kabul and also hit Afghan Taliban bases in Kandahar.

The news of strikes came amid reports of explosions being heard in Kabul, where a fuel tanker and a generator had exploded, sparking fires in the Afghan capital, Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid had said on Wednesday.

The ceasefire agreed to on Wednesday was a he-said-she-said situation as both said it was the other side that requested a pause in fighting.

A Pakistani foreign ministry statement said the two countries would implement a “temporary ceasefire” for 48 hours starting 6 pm (local time) on Wednesday, adding the truce was requested by Kabul.

Afghan Taliban’s Zabihullah Mujahid said the ceasefire was due to the “insistence of the Pakistani side.”

Kabul had directed its forces to observe the ceasefire provided the other side does not commit aggression, Zabihullah Mujahid said.