Pakistan and Taliban agree to 48-hour ceasefire after renewed fighting kills dozens

The Pakistani government and Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban on Wednesday agreed to a temporary 48-hour ceasefire after fresh clashes erupted this week and saw more than a dozen civilians and troops killed.

The terms of the ceasefire remain unclear, and neither the Pakistani nor the Taliban’s foreign ministries immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s questions, though reports on Wednesday suggested Pakistan’s foreign ministry was making efforts to engage in dialogue to resolve the complex conflict. 

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Both Pakistan and Afghanistan have pointed the blame at one another over why fighting erupted over the weekend on the shared border – resulting in the worst conflict both sides have seen since the Taliban took over Kabul in 2021, reported Reuters. 

Regular clashes have long occurred on the 1,600-mile-long border over land disputes, but since the 2021 Taliban takeover, Islamabad has accused the Taliban of providing safe-haven to anti-Pakistan militants. 

The Taliban on Wednesday claimed that Pakistani forces launched attacks in the city of Spin Boldak in Afghanistan’s Kandahar Province, which sits right on the shared border, and said more than a dozen civilians were killed and 100 others wounded. 

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Pakistan also claimed that four of its civilians were wounded in attacks by the Taliban forces in Chaman, which is the district directly opposite of Afghanistan’s Spin Boldak, reported Reuters. 

Additional fighting between troops and militants apparently broke out in a second area in Pakistan’s Orakzai district to the north, where Islamabad said six Pakistani paramilitary soldiers were killed and two security officials were wounded. 

Nine militants were also reportedly killed after the violence allegedly broke out during a search by Pakistani forces in an area that was attacked by militants last week in which 11 Pakistani soldiers were killed.

Reports on social media also suggested that a Pakistani intelligence office was hit on Wednesday in an incident in Peshawar, a city just to the north of Pakistan’s Orakzai district, though Fox News Digital could not independently confirm this. 

President Donald Trump last week suggested he could help end the conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan, though neither side has said he had a role to play in the current truce and the White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s questions on the subject.