On Thursday, October 16, Afghanistan and Pakistan honored a ceasefire, which killed dozens of people in their border areas and spilled over into the Afghan capital, Kabul.
“There is no record of shooting in the border districts since yesterday evening (Wednesday). However, additional paramilitary forces have been deployed to counter any operations that might compromise the ceasefire. A senior Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The ceasefire, which came into effect on Wednesday, is supposed to last for 48 hours. This is what Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said about Afghanistan: “The ball is in their court (…) if they want to solve the problem and respond to our real demands, we are ready to accept them”.
Calm has also returned to Kabul, where fresh explosions erupted shortly before a ceasefire was announced on Wednesday. Pakistani security sources said the army targeted an armed group there “Precise Strike”.In Chamanon, a town on the Pakistani side of the border, markets have reopened. Same observation on the other side, in Spin Boldak, where the fleeing residents have returned to their homes.
Several reports have been published following this series of attacks. Five people were killed and 35 were injured in Kabul, according to Emergencies, an Italian NGO that runs a hospital in the Afghan capital.
At least forty civilians were killed and 170 wounded on the Afghan side, according to Karimullah Zubair Agha, director of public health in Spin Boldak, Kandahar province. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (MANUA) has killed at least 18 civilians and injured more than 350 in recent days.
Repetitive tension
After this armed conflict, the most serious in recent years along the border of the two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan approved a forty-eight-hour ceasefire, which came into effect on Wednesday evening.
This new cycle of violence began on October 9 with explosions in Kabul, near Abdul-Haq Square and several government buildings, and in Paktika province. The Taliban government blamed them on Pakistan, which subsequently launched a military operation along the border.
According to Pakistani authorities, the terrorist group, more precisely the Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan), which is supported by Afghanistan, is at the center of recurring tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
