The Qatari Foreign Ministry has announced that Pakistan and Afghanistan have reached a landmark ceasefire agreement, marking a potential breakthrough in efforts to restore peace and stability along their troubled border.
The ceasefire agreement is expected to lay a strong foundation for lasting peace in the region, according to the Qatari officials.
Both countries have also agreed to hold further meetings in the coming days and to establish a permanent mechanism to ensure peace and stability between them.
Confirming the agreement, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif expressed hope that the ceasefire would end border tensions between the two countries.
Asif said the delegations from the two sides would meet again in Istanbul on October 25 as he emphasised that both countries have agreed to respect each other’s territorial sovereignty.
Pakistan and Afghanistan held the first round of talks mediated by Qatar in Doha on Saturday. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif led the Pakistani delegation, while his Afghan counterpart Mullah Yaqoob headed his country's negotiators.
Furthermore, sources said senior security officials accompanied the defence minister to support the negotiations. The Afghan intelligence chief was also part of the Kabul delegation.
Pakistan told the Afghan delegation that the presence of militant groups in Afghanistan was "unacceptable", sources added.
The two neighbouring nations are witnessing heightened tensions amid the Afghan Taliban regime's reluctance to act against terrorist groups, operating from Afghan soil, in the backdrop of rising terror attacks in Pakistan.
The Taliban forces and India-backed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), alias Fitna al-Khawarij, resorted to an unprovoked attack on Pakistan on October 12.
The Pakistan Armed Forces gave a befitting response to the aggression, killing over 200 Afghan Taliban and affiliated militants in a self-defence action. The military's media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said that 23 soldiers embraced martyrdom in the clashes with the Taliban forces and the terrorists.
Furthermore, the security forces also conducted “precision strikes” in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province and the capital Kabul, successfully destroying multiple strongholds in response to recent aggression.
After the ceasefire, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that Pakistan is ready to hold talks with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan on reasonable terms.
The country has witnessed a surge in cross-border terror incidents since Taliban rulers returned to Afghanistan in 2021, particularly in the bordering provinces of KP and Balochistan.
The two countries share a porous border spanning around 2,500 kilometres with several crossing points, which hold significance as a key element of regional trade and relations between the people on both sides of the divide.
However, the issue of terrorism remains a key issue for Pakistan, which has urged Afghanistan to prevent its soil from being used by groups such as the banned TTP to carry out attacks inside the former’s territory.