Pakistan links deadly attacks to Afghan nationals as fragile ceasefire holds

Pakistan has accused Afghan nationals of carrying out two suicide attacks this week in Islamabad and South Waziristan, warning that Kabul must rein in militants even as a ceasefire between the neighbours holds but remains fragile.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi told parliament that a bomber blew himself up near a police patrol outside a lower court in Islamabad on Tuesday, killing 12 people and wounding 27, while another attacker rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the main gate of a military school in South Waziristan a day earlier, killing three people. He said both bombers were Afghan nationals and repeated accusations that Afghanistan was supporting militant groups who attack Pakistan.

Authorities in Kabul have rejected those claims. Afghanistan’s de-facto government insists it does not allow foreign militants to operate from its soil and has repeatedly accused Pakistan of trying to shift blame for its own security failures. Government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters that Afghan forces have, in operations against Islamic States militants, “killed, neutralised, or captured Pakistani nationals,” but said this did not mean Islamabad was responsible for their actions.

AnewZ contacted Afghan officials in Kabul for further comment on Pakistan’s latest allegations but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a statement that the recent clashes between the two countries had resulted in 462 civilian casualties in Afghanistan - 37 killed and 425 wounded. Local Pakistan media reports claimed that dozens were killed and many more wounded in Pakistan during the same cross-border exchanges, highlighting that civilians on both sides of the frontier are increasingly paying the price for the escalating confrontation.

Tensions have also surfaced in the diplomatic track. Rahmatullah Najib, head of the Afghanistan’s negotiation team and Afghanistan’s deputy interior minister, said Pakistan’s delegation at the recent Istanbul talks asked Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada to issue a religious decree declaring the conflict in Pakistan unlawful. Najib said the delegation responded that Akhundzada “does not issue fatwas” and told Pakistan to submit any request to the Taliban’s Dar al-Ifta, the movement’s religious authority, which could not be expected to deliver a ruling “tailored to its wishes.”  

He said Afghanistan could not declare the war in Pakistan either legitimate or illegitimate, arguing that the conflict “does not belong” to the authorities in Kabul.

Despite public commitments to continue talks mediated by Türkiye and Qatar, analysts say the failure to agree on a mechanism to curb cross-border militancy shows deep mistrust on both sides, leaving a ceasefire that is still in force but increasingly fragile.

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