Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Sunday welcomed the ceasefire agreement inked between Pakistan and Afghanistan, effectively bringing an end to the days of hostility triggered by border clashes.
“Welcome the agreement finalised late last night in Doha. It is the first step in the right direction,” DPM Dar said in a post on X while reacting to the truce agreed between Pakistan and Kabul during talks in Doha, Qatar.
“We look forward to the establishment of a concrete and verifiable monitoring mechanism, in the next meeting to be hosted by Turkiye, to address the menace of terrorism emanating from Afghan soil towards Pakistan. It is important to put all efforts in place to prevent any further loss of lives,” Dar added while appreciating the constructive role played by brotherly Qatar and Turkiye.
Pakistan and Afghanistan had been recently engaged in cross-border strikes triggered by an unprovoked attack by Afghan Taliban forces and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists, prompting Islamabad to launch airstrikes as well as a response on the ground, resulting in the elimination of more than 200 Afghan Taliban and affiliated terrorists.
A temporary truce between the neighbours — which Pakistan agreed to at the request of Afghanistan — on Wednesday paused days of fierce fighting that killed dozens and wounded hundreds.Meanwhile, reacting to the truce announcement, Turkiye’s embassy in Pakistan vowed to “continue to support the efforts for achieving lasting peace and stability between the two brotherly countries and in the region”.
Pakistan and Afghansitan, since the clashes began, held talks, mediated by Qatar and Turkiye, in the Doha capital, where Defence Minister Khawaja Asif led the Pakistani delegation, while his Afghan counterpart Mullah Yaqoob spearheaded his country’s delegation.
The sources said that senior security officials accompanied the defence minister to support the negotiations. Meanwhile, the Afghan intelligence chief was also part of the Afghan delegation.
Pakistan told the Afghan delegation that the presence of militant groups in Afghanistan was “unacceptable”, sources added.
Defence czar Asif, in a late-night post on X, confirmed the ceasefire agreement under which “terrorism from Afghanistan on Pakistani soil will stop immediately”.
The minister also announced that the two sides will meet again in Istanbul on October 25, with Islamabad and Kabul agreeing to respect each other’s territorial sovereignty.
Pakistan has time again urged the Taliban regime in Afghanistan to prevent the Afghan soil from being used by terrorists to carry out attacks inside Pakistan.
Since Taliban rulers returned to Afghanistan in 2021, Pakistan has witnessed a surge in cross-border terror incidents, particularly in the bordering provinces of KP and Balochistan.
The two nations share a porous border spanning around 2,500 kilometres with several crossing points, which hold significance as a key element of regional trade and relations between the people across both sides of the border.
Pakistan also conducted “precision strikes” on verified camps of the proscribed Gul Bahadur group in the border areas of North and South Waziristan districts, said Information Minister Attaullah Tarar in a post on X.
“In these precision strikes, [a] minimum [of] 60-70 Kharjis [terrorists] and their leadership have been sent to hell based on confirmed intelligence reports,” the minister said.
Tarar also noted that militants affiliated with the TTP, alias Fitna al-Khawarij, and operating from Afghanistan, attempted multiple terrorist attacks inside Pakistan, saying that all such attempts were effectively thwarted by the country’s security forces, who responded effectively, eliminating over 100 militants affiliated with the Khawarij group.
On Friday, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal, while addressing the passing-out parade of the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) in Kakul, urged the people of Afghanistan to choose “mutual peace and security over violence” and said that the Taliban government should act decisively against militant proxies operating from its soil for terrorist activities in Pakistan.