Explained: What triggered Pakistan-Afghan Taliban border clash, and what happens next?
Recent Pakistan-Afghanistan border clashes escalated after Taliban "revenge" strikes for alleged Pakistani airstrikes. Tensions are fueled by Afghanistan's refusal to acknowledge the Durand Line and Pakistan's accusations of Kabul sheltering the TTP.
New Delhi: In a significant geopolitical incident, Afghan security forces on Sunday executed "revenge” strikes on Pakistani soldiers. It escalated the tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, triggering cross-border clashes.
According to reports, Afghanistan's Taliban forces attacked Pakistani soldiers late on Saturday along the shared border, calling the action "retaliation for air strikes carried out by the Pakistani army on Kabul” two nights earlier. While Afghanistan claimed to have killed 58 Pakistani soldiers, Pakistan said its forces have killed over 200 Taliban and affiliated troops in counterfire. Amid such a scenario, border crossings between the two countries have been shut.
What is the reason behind the clashes between the two countries?
According to the Taliban Defence Ministry, on October 9, two explosions rocked Kabul, and a third explosion took place in a civilian market in the border province of Paktika. The Taliban government blamed Pakistan for the explosions, and interestingly, the accusation was not outrightly denied by Islamabad.
Once allies, Pakistan and Afghanistan have constantly clashed in recent years, with the former blaming Kabul for supporting Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the group that has carried out several attacks in the country. As per Islamabad's allegations, the Taliban regime shelters militants from the TTP, an accusation that Afghanistan has denied. Notably, these two countries share a 2,611-kilometre frontier known as the Durand Line, which Afghanistan has never formally recognised.
As per the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), at least 2,414 fatalities have been recorded in the first three quarters of this year, with the toll being at least 2,546 last year. Also, Pakistan has decided to deport tens of thousands of Afghan refugees from the country, and this is another reason behind the growing tension. Countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar have called for restraint from both sides.
The future of these clashes
Despite the ongoing violent clashes between the two countries in the border regions, experts have reportedly opined that both Pakistan and Afghanistan won't like to escalate the matter and make it something bigger. However, the TTP is expected to remain a bone of contention as the Afghan government refuses to acknowledge its existence on their soil. With the alleged blasts, Pakistan has reportedly shown that it won't tolerate the help that the Afghanistan government is allegedly providing to TTP, while the Taliban attacked Pakistani security forces to show that everything is under their control.