{"id":10598,"date":"2025-10-16T14:18:39","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T09:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=10598"},"modified":"2025-10-16T14:50:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T09:50:01","slug":"ceasefire-halts-deadly-afghanistan-pakistan-fighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/uncategorized\/ceasefire-halts-deadly-afghanistan-pakistan-fighting\/","title":{"rendered":"Ceasefire halts deadly Afghanistan-Pakistan fighting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spin Boldak \u2013 A ceasefire along the frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan was holding on Thursday, officials on both sides said, after dozens of troops and civilians were killed in cross-border clashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Spin Boldak, a focal point of recent clashes on the Afghan side, an AFP journalist saw shops reopening and residents returning to homes they had fled during the fighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 48-hour ceasefire was aimed at allowing time to “find a positive solution… through constructive dialogue”, according to Islamabad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pakistan is facing a resurgence of attacks against its security forces on its western border with Afghanistan, led by the Pakistani Taliban and its affiliates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Islamabad accuses Kabul of offering safe haven to militants who plan their frequent assaults from Afghan soil — a charge the Taliban government denies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"People
People in Afghanistan transfer coffins of Pakistani security personnel in Spin Boldak, a focal point of recent clashes \u00a9 Sanaullah SEIAM \/ AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pakistani officials on the northern and southern border with Afghanistan told AFP on Thursday that “no violence was reported overnight, and the ceasefire remains in effect”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A senior security official in Peshawar told AFP: “Additional paramilitary troops have been deployed to counter potential… militant activity that could jeopardise the ceasefire.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly before the ceasefire was announced, blasts were reported in the capital Kabul and the southern province of Kandahar province, where the Afghan Taliban’s shadowy supreme leader lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UN rights chief Volker Turk welcomed the ceasefire and appealed to “both parties to prevent any further harm to civilians & commit to a lasting ceasefire”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Precision strikes’<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first explosions that struck Afghanistan last week, which the Taliban blamed on Islamabad, hit while Afghanistan’s top diplomat was on an unprecedented visit to India — Pakistan’s eastern neighbour and rival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taliban authorities then launched an offensive at the border, prompting Islamabad to vow a strong response of its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exchanges of fire from Saturday killed dozens of people, with renewed violence from Wednesday also causing civilian casualties, according to Kabul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Some
Some Afghan residents of Spin Boldak district fled their homes during the fighting \u00a9 Sanaullah SEIAM \/ AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Taliban government officially blamed Wednesday’s blasts in the Afghan capital on an explosion of an oil tanker and a generator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Pakistani security sources said the military targeted an armed group with “precision strikes” in Kabul, as well as hitting Afghan Taliban bases in Kandahar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least five people were killed and 35 wounded in Wednesday’s explosions in Kabul, an Italian NGO that runs a hospital in the city said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"This
This month’s deadly violence follows strained bilateral relations, particularly over security issues \u00a9 Sanaullah SEIAM \/ AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“We started receiving ambulances filled with wounded people, and we learned that there had been explosions a few kilometres away from our hospital,” Dejan Panic, Emergency’s country director in Afghanistan, said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The casualties suffered shrapnel wounds, blunt force trauma and burns, with 10 in critical condition, the NGO said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were blackouts overnight and into Thursday morning in some areas of Kabul, caused by electricity cables damaged in the explosions, AFP journalists in the city said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spin Boldak \u2013 A ceasefire along the frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan was holding on Thursday, officials on both sides said, after dozens of troops and civilians were killed in cross-border clashes. In Spin Boldak, a focal point of recent clashes on the Afghan side, an AFP journalist saw shops reopening and residents returning to […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":10599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,80,396,82,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-asia","category-latest","category-paksitan","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10598"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}