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Islamabad–Kabul Ceasefire on Brink as Pakistan Vows to Eliminate Terror Threat

March 24, 2026
Khaama Press

 

Pakistan has reaffirmed its commitment to “eliminate terrorism” as a temporary ceasefire with authorities in Kabul nears its deadline, signaling a possible return to intensified conflict. Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said Islamabad’s security approach remains unchanged despite the brief pause in hostilities.

The ceasefire, agreed last week during the Eid al-Fitr holidays, temporarily halted weeks of escalating clashes between Pakistan and Taliban forces. However, officials on both sides have indicated that the truce may not be extended, raising concerns about renewed cross-border violence.

In a message marking Pakistan Day, Dar stressed that military actions, including operations inside Afghanistan territory, are aimed at countering terrorist threats. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif echoed this stance, describing such actions as a reflection of Pakistan’s national resolve to safeguard its security.

Tensions remain high following recent incidents, including Taliban claims that Pakistani shelling killed a civilian in Kunar province. Islamabad, meanwhile, continues to accuse Kabul of harboring militant groups such as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which it says carry out attacks inside Pakistan from Afghanistan soil, claims the Taliban deny.

The current ceasefire followed a deadly Pakistani strike in Kabul, which Taliban authorities said killed over 400 people at a rehabilitation center. The incident significantly escalated hostilities and deepened mistrust between the two sides.

The latest round of clashes traces back to February, after multiple mediation attempts by regional actors, including Gulf countries and China, failed to produce lasting de-escalation. Since then, sporadic fighting and cross-border strikes have intensified, highlighting the fragility of relations.

The broader regional context has also shifted, with Gulf states increasingly focused on tensions involving Iran and recent US and Israeli actions, reducing diplomatic attention on the Pakistan-Afghanistan crisis. This has further complicated efforts to sustain dialogue between Islamabad and Kabul.

With the ceasefire on the brink of expiration and both sides maintaining hardened positions, the risk of renewed escalation between Pakistan and the Taliban remains high, threatening further instability across the already volatile region.

Islamabad–Kabul Ceasefire on Brink as Pakistan Vows to Eliminate Terror Threat
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One in Three in Afghanistan Without Safe Water Despite Aid Efforts, UNICEF Says

March 24, 2026
Khaama Press

UNICEF has warned that nearly one in three people in Afghanistan lack access to safe and sufficient drinking water, highlighting an ongoing humanitarian crisis.

The agency said that in 2025, it managed to provide clean water access to around 2.1 million people, marking progress but still falling short of nationwide needs.

UNICEF emphasized that significantly more efforts are required to ensure that every child in Afghanistan can access safe drinking water, particularly in vulnerable and rural communities.

The organization has previously raised concerns about limited access to clean water in schools, where many children face daily challenges inadequate sanitation facilities.

Reports indicate that one-third of schools across Afghanistan lack safe drinking water, contributing to higher dropout rates, especially among girls who are disproportionately affected by poor hygiene conditions.

Years of conflict, economic hardship, and underdeveloped infrastructure have severely impacted water supply systems, leaving millions dependent on unsafe or unreliable sources.

Limited access to clean water not only affects health but also increases the risk of waterborne diseases, placing additional strain on already fragile healthcare systems.

Without urgent investment and sustained international support, Afghanistan’s water crisis is likely to deepen, putting millions of children at continued risk.

Ensuring universal access to safe drinking water remains critical for improving public health, supporting education, and securing a more stable future for communities across the country.

One in Three in Afghanistan Without Safe Water Despite Aid Efforts, UNICEF Says
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Clashes Resume in Zabul Province as Pakistan–Afghanistan Ceasefire Ends

March 24, 2026
Khaama Press

Clashes have resumed along the Pakistan–Afghanistan border in Zabul Province after the end of a four-day unilateral ceasefire by Pakistan, according to local sources.

The fighting began late in the Shamulzai district after Pakistani border forces carried out artillery shelling on residential areas, prompting a response from Afghan Taliban forces.

The clashes lasted around two hours, with mortar shells hitting homes in border areas, although details about casualties and damage remain unclear.

This is the first major clash reported after the ceasefire ended, despite earlier accusations from both sides that the truce had already been violated.

The temporary ceasefire was announced by Pakistan to ease tensions following weeks of escalating cross-border strikes and security incidents.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani Foreign Minister, Ishaq Dar claimed that Pakistan remains committed to eliminating terrorism, stressing security operations will continue despite temporary ceasefires and ongoing regional tensions.

He added that Pakistan will take all necessary measures to protect national security, warning that cross-border threats will be met with firm responses.

Pakistani officials have repeatedly claimed that militant groups operate from Afghanistan territory, an allegation denied by Taliban authorities.

With fighting continuing after the ceasefire, the risk of further escalation remains high, raising concerns about instability and civilian safety in border region.

Clashes Resume in Zabul Province as Pakistan–Afghanistan Ceasefire Ends
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Afghanistan Frees American Detainee Amid Mounting U.S. Pressure

March 24, 2026

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan

The New York Times

Dennis Walter Coyle, a researcher from Colorado, had been held since last year by the Taliban government.

Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government on Tuesday freed an American researcher, Dennis Walter Coyle, who had been held there for over a year, amid pressure from the Trump administration to release Americans who it says are being held without justification.

Afghanistan’s leader, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, ordered Mr. Coyle’s release after his family wrote to Mr. Akhundzada asking for a pardon on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, which marked the end of the holy month of Ramadan, according to a statement from Afghanistan’s foreign ministry.

Mr. Coyle, 64, who is from Colorado, had been held in Afghanistan since January 2025. He had worked there for over 20 years researching languages, according to his family.

The Coyle family’s website said Mr. Coyle had not been charged with a crime but was being held “in near-solitary conditions.” The State Department in June designated him as wrongfully detained.

Mr. Coyle left Afghanistan Tuesday afternoon on a jet bound for the United Arab Emirates after officials from the Emirates facilitated his release, according to the Emirati special envoy to Afghanistan, Saif Al Ketbi.

Zalmay Khalilzad, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, traveled to Kabul, the capital, for the release. He called Mr. Coyle’s release “a very positive development” and “good decision” made by the Afghan government.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the release was a “positive step by the Taliban” but asked for the release of other U.S. citizens detained in Afghanistan. “The Taliban must end their practice of hostage diplomacy,” Mr. Rubio said in a statement. has faced what its leaders believe is a growing threat of military action from the United States, even as it is enmeshed in a conflict with Pakistan.

Mr. Rubio designated Afghanistan a “state sponsor of wrongful detention” earlier this month, accusing the Taliban government of “kidnapping individuals for ransom or to seek policy concessions.”

Pakistan has been carrying out dozens of airstrikes in Afghanistan, accusing its government of harboring a militant group that has attacked Pakistani security forces and civilians across their shared border. The State Department has said it supports Pakistan’s “right to defend itself” — a stance that Pakistani officials have said that they interpret as a green light to conduct their operations.

Afghanistan has repeatedly denied hosting or supporting militant groups.

U.S. officials say that up to three other Americans are still in Afghanistan.

Mahmood Shah Habibi, a U.S.-Afghan citizen, disappeared in 2022, about a week after an American drone strike in Kabul killed Ayman al-Zawahri, Al Qaeda’s leader and a key plotter of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Mr. Habibi’s whereabouts, and whether he is alive, remain unknown. The Taliban government denies holding Mr. Habibi, despite what the United States says is evidence that he was arrested by the Afghan intelligence services in Kabul.

“The Taliban need to admit they have been holding Mahmood, arrange for his return to his family and move on,” said Eric Lebson, an adviser to the Habibi family and a former U.S. national security official.

The United States also wants answers about Paul Edwin Overby Jr., a Massachusetts author who was last seen in 2014 in Khost, a city in southeastern Afghanistan, while researching a book.

The other detainee is Polynesis Jackson, a former U.S. Army soldier. The circumstances surrounding Mr. Jackson’s detention are unclear.

A spokesman for the Afghan government told The New York Times earlier this year that it was ready to release two U.S. citizens, but that it wanted an Afghan inmate held in Guantánamo Bay to be freed in exchange.

The detainee, Muhammad Rahim, is accused of being a member of Al Qaeda and acting as a courier and interpreter for Osama bin Laden.

“Rahim is a 60-year-old man who has been imprisoned for 18 years without ever being charged with a crime,” James G. Connell, III, an attorney for Mr. Rahim, said in a statement on Tuesday. “He is no threat to anyone, and should be released from Guantánamo.”

Muhammad Ibrahim Rahimi, one of Mr. Rahim’s sons, attended Mr. Coyle’s release at the Kabul airport and stood in silence next to Mr. Khalilzad as Mr. Khalilzad praised the Afghan authorities for Mr. Coyle’s release.

Shortly before Mr. Coyle left Afghan soil as a free man, Mr. Rahimi said he had asked Mr. Khalilzad to deliver a letter to Mr. Trump that read, “We ask you to also release our father so he can return home and make our family happy, just like Dennis Coyle’s family.”

Adam Goldman, Carol Rosenberg, Safiullah Padshah and Yaqoob Akbary contributed reporting.

Afghanistan Frees American Detainee Amid Mounting U.S. Pressure
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Millions of Girls Still Denied Education in Afghanistan, Says UK Envoy

March 23, 2026
Khaama Press

Richard Lindsay, the UK’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, expressed deep concern that millions of girls in Afghanistan remain denied access to education as the new year begins.

On Monday, March 23, Lindsay wrote on X that barring women and girls from schooling harms the country’s future and holds back all Afghan communities.

He emphasized that education must be accessible to everyone, warning that continued restrictions undermine development and social progress in Afghanistan.

Earlier, Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, also voiced concern that girls above grade six are still prevented from attending school.

Since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan nearly five years ago, girls have been systematically barred from schools and universities, and no measures have yet been taken to lift these restrictions.

Before the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan had made significant progress in female education, with millions of girls attending school and universities across the country.

International organizations consistently warn that depriving girls of education not only affects individual futures but also creates broader social and economic consequences for Afghanistan society.

The UK and UN continue to call for immediate action to ensure all Afghan girls can access education, emphasizing that lifting restrictions is crucial for the country’s future.

Millions of Girls Still Denied Education in Afghanistan, Says UK Envoy
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‘The UK is saying the same thing as the Taliban’: the women banned from studying in Britain

March 23, 2026

The Guardian

Mon 23 Mar 2026

Shahira Sadat was thrilled. She had received an invitation to interview for the prestigious Chevening scholarship. “I cannot describe the joy I felt,” she says. “I was hopeful. I allowed myself to dream.” The scholarships are funded by the UK government, enabling future leaders from all over the world to pursue their studies in the UK – most often a one-year master’s degree – developing skills they can use in their home countries.

In recent years, under Taliban rule, Sadat’s home country of Afghanistan has become increasingly hostile to women and girls, and the mother-of-one’s recent career achievements have happened behind closed doors. She is a software engineer, with an interest in AI and how it might help reduce the education gender gap and the digital exclusion of young people of both genders. Her skills could help generations of Afghan women, including her own daughter.

After receiving three offers from UK universities, she poured everything she had into her scholarship application. “I rewrote my essays again and again. I asked for feedback, reviewed every sentence, refined every idea. I spent sleepless nights thinking about how to best represent my goals and my country.”

On 5 March she received a devastating email. Her Chevening application, including an interview scheduled for 9 March, could no longer be taken forward, due to the visa brake. “I was so shocked,” she says. “I cried and cried for hours and woke up the next morning with a bad headache because I had cried so much.”

The offers were withdrawn because of a surprise announcement earlier that week from the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood. This stated that study visas for students from four countries – Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan – are to be suspended. Mahmood considers that there has been abuse of the immigration system by some students from these countries, who have gone on to claim asylum in the UK.

There are other countries whose students come to the UK in much larger numbers – a proportion of whom also claim asylum after completing their studies – that are not facing a similar ban. A Home Office statement noted that asylum claims by students from Cameroon and Sudan “had spiked by more than 330%” before adding that this poses “an unsustainable threat to the UK’s asylum system”. However, while the percentage increase between Covid-era 2021 and 2025 is significant, the actual numbers are small – just a few hundred students. Nonetheless, Mahmood insists this “emergency brake” is necessary to control overall migration.

The women affected by the ban have always regarded the UK and its academic institutions as a beacon. In the world’s worst conflict zones, gifted young women study in hiding, swerving militias, earthquakes, power cuts, internet outages and the threat of starvation. Ironically, they want to study in the UK not to swell the country’s asylum figures, but so they can develop skills to help strengthen the fragile infrastructure back home, which may help reduce the number of people leaving these countries in future.

For Afghan women, says Sadat, “opportunities like Chevening are not just academic programmes – they are lifelines. They are rare doors that allow us to grow, to contribute and to remain connected to the world.”

Afra Elmahdi was floored by Mahmood’s announcement. A Sudanese dentist, she was looking forward to taking up a place at Oxford for an MSc in applied cancer science. Her research focuses on head and neck cancers, with a particular focus on oral cancers, researching saliva as a crucial biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis. As a clinician in Sudan, she has witnessed the human cost of late diagnosis, she says, and wants to address the cancer survival inequalities between developing and developed countries.

“We have applied for these scholarships while being displaced and surviving a war,” she says. “Although we have fulfilled all the universities’ requirements and got a yes, the Home Office is saying a bold, generalised and unjust no.”

Last year, Mariam* graduated from the University of Khartoum, in her home country of Sudan, with first class honours in planning. She was hoping to do her master’s in the field of the built environment, using her skills to help rebuild her war-torn country, and had been offered places at top universities, including University College London, the London School of Economics and the University of Manchester.

“This is the most difficult period Sudan has ever faced,” she says, “and for me, personally, the situation is fragile. We don’t have the resources for education right now and all the infrastructure is collapsing. I don’t have a plan B.

“I spent a long time writing a personal statement, obtaining and authenticating my certificates, and preparing a suitable CV. It took a lot of time and effort, because the internet network in my village is very bad.” She says Mahmood’s decision has “turned my life upside down. Now I will have to go back to square one.”

Sitara* from Afghanistan was entering her fifth year at medical school in Kabul when the Taliban took over and cut off university access for women. “It was like losing a part of my life,” she says. “My father works as a driver and he encouraged me to study medicine. I wanted to make my dad’s dream come true and to help people in my country, particularly women, who would often prefer to be treated by a female doctor, but they can’t, because there are so few.”

She applied to UK universities, hoping to finally qualify as a doctor. Now that dream is over.

“The Taliban don’t want girls to study, but now the UK is saying the same thing as the Taliban. All the doors have closed for us.”Like Sadat, Phyu Nwe Win, a master’s student in economics from Myanmar, had applied for the Chevening scholarship. She studies the relationship between economic development and women’s empowerment.

“Much of my work involves supporting young people,” she says, “particularly girls and adolescents, in areas such as leadership, gender equality, and sexual and reproductive health and rights.” Studying abroad has become one of the few ways young people in Myanmar can continue their education, she says.

Like all the other distraught students from the four banned countries, Sadat is hoping for an 11th-hour reprieve from the home secretary.

“This is not just a simple scholarship to a UK university – it is something life-changing,” she says. “I don’t want to do this just for me, but also for my daughter, to build a better future for her and all the other girls in my country.”

* Some names have been changed

‘The UK is saying the same thing as the Taliban’: the women banned from studying in Britain
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Caught Between Two Conflicts, Afghans Flee Iran

March 23, 2026

By Elian Peltier

Reporting from the Afghanistan-Iran border and Herat, Afghanistan.

The New York Times

March 23, 2026

Fatima Sajjadi crossed the Iran-Afghanistan border last week after a two-day journey, still coughing from the smoke of burning oil in Tehran. A 26-year-old Afghan graduate student in the southern Iranian city of Bushehr, Ms. Sajjadi initially resisted going home when the war in Iran started, in part, she said, because of the many restrictions on women imposed by the Taliban government.

But as her dormitory was evacuated, her university closed and her health deteriorated, her parents pressed her to relent.

“We wanted to put up with the war, but after three weeks, fear weighs in,” Ms. Sajjadi said on a recent afternoon as she stepped back into Afghanistan.

Ms. Sajjadi, an M.B.A. student at Persian Gulf University, is one of thousands of students, construction workers, families and others from Afghanistan who have fled the conflict in Iran.

Afghanistan has received the largest influx of people from Iran since the war began in late February — more than 70,000 people over the first two weeks of March, according to the United Nations’ migration agency.

Although they have escaped the immediate danger of U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran, Afghans are returning to a country struggling with extreme poverty and where the Taliban’s tightening grip on society stifles the futures they were trying to build abroad.

They have also left a country at war only to risk being caught in the middle of another, with Afghanistan and another neighbor, Pakistan, embroiled in conflict.

In interviews with 20 people at the border crossing of Islam Qala in western Afghanistan, and in Herat, the largest city near the border, Afghans said the war has disrupted their educations and jobs, wiping out the safety nets they provided for relatives back home.

With 1,500 people crossing daily, the pace of returns has so far been much lower than last year, when Iran forced nearly two million Afghans out and up to 50,000 people crossed every day.

Yet Iranian officials have warned their Afghan counterparts and humanitarian organizations that they should brace for an increase in returns. Expulsions spiked shortly after Iran’s 12-day war with Israel last June amid a surge of xenophobia that aid groups fear may pick up again.

Iran became Afghanistan’s main trading partner last year after Pakistan closed its border with Afghanistan. But the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran has disrupted this partnership.

“Many Afghans rely on daily labor in Iran that can quickly disappear amid the ongoing conflict, and which could become a major driver of returns,” said Charlie Goodlake, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency in Afghanistan. “The country is already at breaking point in terms of reintegration capacity.”

Ms. Sajjadi was traveling with a friend, Khalida Ahmadi, and the two women said they were aware of the bleak future awaiting them. The Taliban have banned women from public spaces and most jobs, and nearly half of Afghanistan’s 44 million people need humanitarian assistance. In recent weeks, its cities, including the capital, Kabul, have been hit by airstrikes from Pakistan, which accuses the Afghan government of harboring terrorist groups.

“Kabul has been through war and at the moment, it’s not as bad as Tehran,” said Ms. Ahmadi, whose family lives in Kabul. Both said they would go back to Iran as soon as the war there recedes.

Afghan and Iranian officials have said that trade has continued uninterrupted, and a steady flow of trucks has come and gone through the border. More than 22,000 people also crossed from Afghanistan into Iran over the first two weeks of March.

But Afghan drivers said that products imported from third countries through Iranian ports are not coming through. And with money exchangers in both countries unable to communicate with one another, Afghans working in Iran have been unable to send money back home.

“It all goes through us, but we can’t make transfers,” said Abdul Qudos, a money exchanger in Herat, one of Afghanistan’s largest cities and an important hub for trade with Iran.

The U.S.-Israeli strikes have also injured dozens of Afghan workers, returnees said.

Khalil Ahmad lay on a mattress in his mud brick home near Herat one afternoon last week, surrounded by four of his six young children, who had not seen their father in months. Mr. Ahmad worked as a street cleaner for the municipality of Tehran, and as he stepped outside one evening recently to go to the bathroom, shrapnel from a strike on a nearby factory hit his left leg and foot, he said.

Mr. Ahmad, 35, had been sending $160 home monthly — the family’s only source of income. He made the 700-mile journey from Tehran to the border by bus, on crutches, uncertain if he could ever return to Iran to work.

Internet blackouts in Iran have also cut off families and pushed relatives to travel to the border edge, hoping to catch Iranian cell signals for news of a son or brother.

Abdul Ghafar sat on a mound of gravel by the border and tried to call his brother, who sent the equivalent of $200 a month from his construction job in Iran.

“Those who are in Iran can’t work, or not enough, because of the war,” said Mr. Ghafar, as he smoothed wrinkled papers with relatives’ numbers scribbled on them. “Families like us, on the other side, aren’t receiving the money our relatives usually send.”

The mass expulsions of nearly three million Afghans from Iran and Pakistan last year had already crippled Afghanistan’s economy and sent housing prices surging in cities like Herat and Kabul because of heightened demand.

The war in Iran is likely to deal the economy yet another blow, analysts say.

The Afghan economy grew by 4.3 percent last year, according to the World Bank, driven by higher demand for basic goods and housing from returnees. But that sharp population increase has also made individuals poorer: Growth domestic product per capita fell by 4 percent.

“Iran provided stability and assurance to the Afghan economy, and money transfers were the backbone of household survival,” said Nassim Majidi, the co-founder of Samuel Hall, a research firm based in Nairobi that recently released a report on the cost of deportations in Afghanistan. “It was an informal social protection system in a country where you don’t have any.”

Many Afghans crossing the border last week were coming home to celebrate Eid as part of the holy month of Ramadan. But many others cited fear and insecurity as the main reasons for leaving.

Barakat Ibrahimi, 36, came back with his two aging parents because his mother had issues breathing after the bombing of a petroleum depot in Tehran.

Masouma Husseini, 16, an art student, also fled with her family because of the war. “Painting requires patience, and I wasn’t able to focus,” she said. She said she planned to continue studying painting in Afghanistan online.

But many also said they didn’t know whether they would or could go back to Iran.

Javid Arwati, an Afghan business management student in Tehran, said he had to leave his degree unfinished. “We’ve lost three years,” he said, as he crossed the border.

Ms. Sajjadi, the graduate student at Persian Gulf University, said university officials had evacuated their dormitories on the first day of the war out of fear of airstrikes. “We thought civilians might also be targeted,” Ms. Sajjadi said, mentioning the U.S. strike on an Iranian school that killed at least 175 people. “Americans do not show mercy.”

Returning to Afghanistan puts her in another bind. “We can’t implement here the knowledge we’ve learned there,” Ms. Sajjadi said.

It took only hours for her and her friend, Ms. Ahmadi, to face restrictions in Afghanistan. When they reached Herat, a bus company refused Ms. Ahmadi a ticket to Kabul, citing a Taliban-imposed rule that bans women from traveling without a male companion.

Yaqoob Akbary and Kiana Hayeri contributed reporting.

Elian Peltier is The Times’s bureau chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan, based in Islamabad.

Caught Between Two Conflicts, Afghans Flee Iran
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Afghan Journalist Mahdi Ansari Released From Bagram Prison After 18 Months in Custody

March 22, 2026
Khaama Press

The Afghanistan Journalists Center said Mahdi Ansari, a Kabul-based local journalist, has been released after spending one and a half years in Bagram prison, marking the end of a lengthy detention.

In a statement issued on Friday, the media watchdog welcomed his release and said Ansari’s fundamental rights had been seriously violated during his imprisonment on allegations linked to media work.

The center said Ansari had been detained over accusations of cooperating with foreign media outlets, describing his case as another troubling example of mounting pressure on journalists in Afghanistan.

According to the report, Ansari disappeared on October 6 last year after returning from work in Kabul’s Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood, before his family confirmed his arrest three days later.

Press freedom groups and media support organizations have repeatedly voiced concern over the detention, intimidation, and harassment of journalists since the political changes in Afghanistan in 2021.

Many Afghan journalists have faced threats, arbitrary arrests, censorship, or exile for reporting on sensitive political, security, and human rights issues in an increasingly restrictive media environment.

Ansari’s release is expected to be welcomed by advocates of press freedom, but it also highlights continuing concerns about journalist safety and shrinking space for independent reporting in Afghanistan.

Afghan Journalist Mahdi Ansari Released From Bagram Prison After 18 Months in Custody
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Pakistani strike killed hundreds, Afghanistan says, as regional conflicts boil

March 21, 2026
By Shaiq Hussain and Haq Nawaz Khan
The Washigton Post
19 March 2026
As attention focuses on Iran, the conflict between two of its neighbors is escalating.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A Pakistani airstrike on a crowded drug rehabilitation center in Kabul killed more than 400 people earlier this week, Afghanistan’s health ministry said, amid an escalating conflict between countries that neighbor Iran.

Pakistani authorities acknowledged striking what it says were military targets in the Afghan capital but denied attacking the rehab center.

A funeral for dozens of people whose remains could not be identified drew mourners to the streets of Kabul on Wednesday. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the interior minister in Afghanistan’s Taliban government, decried the attack but warned against the impulse to seek revenge.

U.S.-Israeli war on Iran is posing challenges for Afghanistan and Pakistan as energy prices surge and remittances come under pressure. At least 10 people were killed in clashes with security forces during anti-war protests this month outside the U.S. Consulate general in Karachi, Pakistan, authorities there said.

Pakistan, facing security threats along multiple borders, has increased its attacks in Afghanistan.

Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have deteriorated since U.S. forces withdrew in 2021 and the Taliban returned to Kabul. Islamabad accuses the Taliban of harboring Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, a militant group that pledges loyalty to the Taliban’s leader in Afghanistan and has repeatedly attacked Pakistan. Days before the United States and Israel launched their campaign against Iran, tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan flared again into open conflict. With attention focused on Iran, Pakistan has carried out increasingly deadly strikes in Afghanistan.

Pakistani authorities called the Afghan figures propaganda. Pakistani forces, they said, attacked only military facilities Monday night.

“The addiction? The Afghan Taliban’s constant lies,” said Mosharraf Zaidi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s prime minister. “The cure? Pakistan’s counterterrorism operations.”

“No hospital, no drug rehabilitation center, and no civilian facility was targeted,” Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said. He posted a video of what he said were Pakistani strikes on “military installations in Kabul” on Monday night.

Trevor Ball, a conflict researcher for the investigative group Bellingcat, said the strikes seen in Tarar’s video could be geolocated to buildings within 400 meters of the rehab center. An overhead photo of the treatment center issued by Afghanistan’s national disaster management authority shows a wide path of wreckage that includes the buildings targeted in the video and most of the rehab center.

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai told Sky News the strikes shook his house.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said “hundreds” of people were killed. “Civilians and civilian infrastructure must never be a target.”

The State Department said it was aware of reports of an attack on a rehab facility, but would not confirm details. “The Pakistani people have suffered greatly at the hands of terrorists, including the Taliban, who continue to allow Afghanistan to be used as a launching pad for horrific cross-border attacks,” the department told The Washington Post in a statement Wednesday. “The United States does not condone military targeting of civilians and supports Pakistan’s right to defend itself against attacks from the Taliban, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group.”

Nawaz Khan reported from Peshawar, Pakistan. Meg Kelly in Washington and Imogen Piper in London contributed to this report.

Pakistani strike killed hundreds, Afghanistan says, as regional conflicts boil
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Ex-Pak envoy says Kabul truce will not last without action on TTP

March 20, 2026
Khaama Press

 

Former Pakistan special envoy for Afghanistan Asif Durrani has warned that the current ceasefire between the Taliban and Islamabad will not last unless concrete action is taken against Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.

Writing on X on Thursday, Durrani said the pause in hostilities could turn into a durable truce only if the Afghan Taliban carry out a series of specific and practical measures.

He said the first step should be the formal confirmation and real enforcement of an order attributed to Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada declaring jihad in Pakistan to be forbidden.

Durrani stressed that the reported order should not remain a symbolic statement and must be seriously implemented at every level of the Taliban structure.

He also called the disarmament of TTP members inside Afghanistan essential, saying the current situation weakens state authority and threatens wider regional stability.

Durrani said the Taliban should also stop fundraising by TTP members and supporters, especially through mosques and informal religious networks.

He added that TTP leaders should not be allowed to use Afghanistan soil to plan or carry out attacks inside Pakistan, while Afghan citizens should be clearly barred from joining such operations.

The Taliban have denied supporting TTP and say they will not allow Afghanistan territory to be used against neighboring countries, but Durrani said lasting calm depends on visible action.

Ex-Pak envoy says Kabul truce will not last without action on TTP
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