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Pakistan Afghanistan Conflict: Afghanistan’s foreign minister Amir Khan Mutaqqi, who is on a visit to India, said on Sunday (October 12) that Kabul wanted peace with Pakistan, but if that country did not cooperate, they had “other means” at their disposal. The comments came on the day Afghanistan said it killed 58 Pakistani soldiers in response to “violations” of its territory and airspace.
Earlier this week, Afghanistan had accused Pakistan of bombing Kabul and a market in the southeast border province of Paktika. Pakistan did not take responsibility for the strikes officially.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Armed Forces’ media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said Sunday that 23 Pakistani soldiers had been “martyred” while “200 Taliban and affiliated terrorists have been killed in border clashes following an attack from the Afghan side,” as reported by Dawn.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia expressed concerns over the developments and asked for restraint. India hasn’t officially commented yet. China, which has stakes in the region because of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, is yet to issue a statement.
Why are Pakistan and Afghanistan fighting again? What are the implications for India, and the region at large? We explain, in 3 points.
According to the United Nations Security Council, “Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, also known as the Pakistan Taliban, is an alliance of formerly disparate militant groups that came together in 2007 following Pakistan military operations against Al-Qaida-related militants in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.”
The TTP was formed under the leadership of Baitullah Mehsud, who died in August 2009 in a US drone strike.
At its height, the TTP’s controlled large areas in north-western Pakistan. While its influence has since waned, it received a boost after the Taliban came back to power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2011.
The TTP, belonging to the orthodox Deobandi school of thought, wants Pakistan to be run by an emirate based on a strict interpretation of Islamic law. To that end, it wishes to overthrow the current government, which it believes is not Islamic enough.
The TTP also opposes the Pakistan government’s assistance to the US ‘war on terror’ launched after the 9/11 twin tower attacks.
It has been behind some of the deadliest attacks on Pakistani soil, including the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar in December 2014, in which 132 schoolchildren between the ages of eight and 18, and nine school staff, were massacred.
Thanks to the years-long presence of NATO troops in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the TTP has both access to and skills in using high-tech weaponry.
The Pakistani establishment had long nurtured the Afghan Taliban, in the hope of gaining “strategic depth” against India in Afghanistan. It provided funds, shelter, as well as military training to the Taliban.
When the group came back to power in Kabul in 2011, Islamabad had hoped that Taliban would pay back the favour, and TTP militants would no longer get shelter and aid in Afghanistan. That hope has been conclusively belied.
While the Taliban government has repeatedly proclaimed that it won’t allow an inch of its soil to be used by terror groups of any stripe, it has been reluctant in mounting an outright offensive against the TTP, with which it shares ideological and to a degree cultural affinity. When Pakistan bombs what it claims are TTP hideouts within Afghanistan, the Taliban government strongly opposes it.
Pakistan’s efforts of weeding out TTP have also been thwarted by the fact the local population in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the group’s stronghold, has its own long-running grievances with the Pakistani state, about unfair treatment and poor growth.
Timing of the current violence
The latest round of violence came at a time Mutaqqi is in India, and the two countries have majorly expanded diplomatic ties. In fact, India has said it will reestablish its embassy in Kabul, overcoming a long hesitation in full official engagement with the Taliban.
This development will create unease in Pakistan.
Pakistan blames India for the activities of both the TTP and the Balochistan insurgency it is battling.
In fact, the ISPR statement about the fresh violence, as quoted by Dawn, says the skirmishes began “on the night of Oct 11/12, 2025, [after] Afghan Taliban and India-sponsored Fitna-al-Khawarij launched an unprovoked attack on Pakistan, along the Pak-Afghan border.”
‘Khawarij’ is an Arabic term for ‘those who left’ and refers to a rebel sect of early Islam. Pakistan refers to the TTP as Fitna-al-Khawarij, which roughly means those who have strayed from the right path of Islam or those who are guided by a distorted understanding of Islam.
For Pakistan, the Afghanistan situation is becoming dire in many ways. Attacks on the TTP hideouts are killing its own people and causing bad blood with the ordinary Afghan citizens.
Then is the fact that China, Pakistan’s main benefactor, wants peace in the region so that its infra projects can proceed. Its allies in the Arab world, weary of the bloodshed in Gaza, would hardly want another conflict to flare up on their other side.
In such a scenario, India seems to have made its diplomatic outreach to Afghanistan at the right time.
