Pakistan-Afghanistan tensions intensify as border conflict widens

Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have intensified after Pakistan carried out airstrikes on targets in Afghanistan, with both sides disputing the casualties and nature of the targets. The Taliban said nine or 10 civilians, including women and children, were killed. Pakistan claimed that 22 militants were killed and weapons and ammunition depots destroyed.

The strikes followed a series of attacks on Pakistani security forces. On September 18, an assault on a police compound in Kohat, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killed 31 people and injured more than 100. The Pakistani Taliban, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, claimed responsibility.

Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of providing the TTP with a safe haven. Afghanistan denies this. The TTP is separate from Afghanistan’s Taliban government, although the two have ideological and personnel links dating from the war against international and US forces.

The Taliban’s return to power in 2021 gave the TTP greater room to operate, according to the source material. Analysts say the personal connections between the groups make it difficult for Afghanistan’s Taliban to break with the Pakistani organisation, but they do not amount to direct control. A further source of tension is the Durand Line, the 1893 border that divides areas inhabited by Pashtuns.

Many Pashtuns reject the border, giving the dispute an ethnic and nationalist dimension. Pakistan has used border closures, trade restrictions and the return of Afghan refugees to pressure the Taliban. Afghanistan, a landlocked country, depends heavily on routes through neighbouring states, including Pakistan.

Temporary ceasefires and talks have failed to resolve how attacks from Afghan territory should be prevented. The dispute has also expanded into accusations that both sides support armed opponents of the other, raising fears of a wider conflict.