there are dozens of dead according to the local press

The fragility of the truce between Pakistan and the Taliban, which last weekend staged the deadliest armed clashes since the fundamentalist movement regained power in Afghanistan in August 2021, was revealed early Wednesday morning, when fighting was reactivated on both sides of the border.

Afghan fundamentalists reported the death of a dozen civilians after a series of Pakistani airstrikes in the border district of Spin Boldak, an important strategic corridor in the Balochistan region. According to his version, another hundred people were injured in the same incident.

Islamabad, which called the Taliban’s accusations “blatant and scandalous lies,” maintains that the offensive responds to a previous attack by the Afghan Taliban at four different points along the border. The Pakistani Armed Forces also blamed the deaths of four civilians in the town of Chaman on fundamentalists.

Another parallel incident, recorded in the Pakistani region of Orakzai, resulted in the death of six Pakistani soldiers and nine other Afghan militants, according to the agency. Reuters.

The escalation continued early in the morning, when the Pakistani Army confirmed having carried out several “precision strikes” in Kandahar province, from where the Taliban supreme leader, Haibatula andzadádirects the designs of the country.

“As a result of these attacks, the Number 4 Battalion of the Afghan Taliban and the Number 6 Border Brigade were completely destroyed. Dozens of foreign and Afghan operatives died,” the Pakistani soldiers reported in a statement.

The border clashes began last weekend, coinciding with the first official visit to India of the Taliban Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqiin which his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankaragreed to reopen its Embassy in Kabul.

It wasn’t coincidence. India is Pakistan’s regional nemesis. The two nuclear powers went to war last May precisely because of another terrorist attack in Indian Kashmir that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi attributed to a jihadist group linked to the Pakistani security services.

The same day Muttaqi landed in New Delhi, the Taliban accused Pakistan of having launched an “unprecedented, violent and reprehensible” attack in Kabul and the border province of Paktika. Pakistani authorities did not claim responsibility, but Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry dropped that they had evidence that neighboring Afghanistan was “being used as a base of operations to carry out terrorist acts in Pakistan.”

In that crossroads of attacks, Pakistan claimed to have killed more than 200 Taliban and militants, a figure much higher than the nine casualties that the Taliban acknowledged. For his part, the spokesman for the self-proclaimed Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Choicdeclared that his own had killed 58 Pakistani soldiers, more than double the 23 that Pakistan acknowledged.

The tensions between these two neighbors are surprising because the Government of Pakistan has historically been one of the main supporters of the Taliban. Islamabad’s patience was exhausted, however, due to the limited control that the Afghan fundamentalist authorities exercise over Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Islamic State of Greater Khorasan (ISKP), two jihadist groups that, with increasing frequency, carry out attacks in their territory.

“Pakistan has witnessed an increase in terrorism, mainly in the tribal and border regions, which cost the lives of both citizens and members of the security forces, including Army officers,” he underlines in conversation with this newspaper. Syed Fraz Hussain Naqvianalyst at the Institute of Regional Studies in Islamabad.

Naqvi denounces that, “despite repeatedly asking the Afghan side to control terrorist groups, including the TTP and ISKP, the Afghan Taliban have failed to do so so far due to the ideological affinity that unites them.”

“In Pakistani society, an attack by Afghanistan is perceived as a betrayal, especially considering that Pakistan has hosted more than four million Afghan refugees for more than four decades,” laments the analyst. “The main affected would be those Afghans who are living illegally in Pakistan and are involved in criminal activities.”

The Taliban flatly reject this accusation, but it is not the only reason that angers the Pakistani authorities. “On the other hand,” Naqvi continued, “Afghanistan is moving closer to India and issuing tough statements against Pakistan. Given India’s long-standing presence in Afghanistan, Pakistan fears that Afghan territory could be used against it at India’s behest.”

On the diplomatic level, however, Pakistan has everything to gain. It has the support of Iran and China, and has just closed a security agreement with Saudi Arabia that commits the parties to respond jointly to any aggression they suffer. “Therefore, any prolonged conflict would end up weakening the Taliban and generating instability in Afghanistan, which would benefit terrorist groups,” warns the specialist.

Donald Trump He wants to remove this possibility and become diplomatic as well. “I hear there’s a war now between Pakistan and Afghanistan,” the US president declared last Sunday aboard Air Force One. “I’ll have to wait until I get back. You know, I’m going to do another one, because I’m good at solving wars.”