Five months after the India-Pakistan conflict ended, Pakistan once again clashed with Afghanistan.

Starting from October 10, Afghanistan and Pakistan erupted in fierce fighting. The Afghan Defense Ministry accused Pakistan of bombing its capital, Kabul, and attacking the province of Paktika in eastern Afghanistan, calling this act "an unprecedented violent provocation."

Pakistan, on the other hand, accused Afghanistan of opening fire without reason and attacking Pakistani military outposts, with fighting breaking out at six locations along the border between the two countries.

Pakistani soldiers on patrol on the street

Additionally, according to the Afghan media "Dawn News," the Taliban armed forces and the Pakistani army engaged in fierce battles along the entire "Durand Line" border between the two countries. The Taliban attacked Pakistani positions from multiple directions, while the Pakistani army retaliated with artillery.

By October 12, the Afghan Defense Ministry announced that it had completed its retaliation against Pakistan and warned that if Pakistan dared to infringe on Afghan airspace again, Afghanistan would respond firmly.

The current casualty situation of the conflict is unknown. Pakistan claimed that the air strike on Kabul "decapitated" the leader of the TTP organization and killed 30 TTP militants in subsequent operations.

However, the TTP denied this claim and stated that they ambushed a Pakistani military patrol in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, resulting in 11 soldiers being killed and three missing.

Explosion at the Frontier Corps headquarters in Quetta, Pakistan in September

Pakistan and Afghanistan getting into a conflict is not surprising.

Setting aside the disputed "Durand Line" boundary issue, Pakistan has long accused Afghanistan of being a base for terrorists, harboring organizations such as the TTP that conduct infiltration attacks on Pakistan.

According to a report by the Islamabad-based think tank "Institute for Conflict and Security," violent conflict incidents in Pakistan have increased by 74% since July this year, especially in August, when 143 armed attacks occurred, making it the month with the most deaths from terrorist attacks in Pakistan in over a decade.

Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif publicly accused terrorists of coming from Afghanistan and declared that if the Afghan Taliban continued to stand with terrorists, Pakistan would cut ties with Afghanistan and take measures to thwart these attacks.

In response, the Afghan Taliban did not admit Pakistan's accusations but could not clear themselves of any connection with the TTP.

TTP and ATTA were originally one organization

The full name of TTP is "Taliban Movement of Pakistan." In the past, it was part of the ATTA, but in 2007 it separated from ATTA and set up its own organization. Its demand is to overthrow the Pakistani government and establish a theocratic state. It has carried out several terrorist attacks in Pakistan and has been designated as a "terrorist organization" by Pakistan and the international community.

Therefore, after the ATTA took over power in Afghanistan, it faced an awkward situation:

On one hand, as the current government of Afghanistan, the ATTA needs to gain recognition from the international community and maintain national sovereignty, so it has repeatedly announced that it will eliminate terrorist organizations within the country and will not allow any terrorist organizations to use Afghan territory to threaten other countries;

On the other hand, due to historical relations with the TTP and religious factors, the ATTA's anti-terrorism actions are not thorough enough - since the ATTA took over Kabul in 2021, the number of terrorist attacks by TTP members against Pakistan has increased year by year, which has led to repeated accusations from Pakistan and even suspicions that some factions within the ATTA still secretly support the TTP.

Afghan foreign minister went to India without giving Pakistan an explanation

Certainly, what Pakistan cannot accept even more is that the ATTA has not yet given an explanation to Pakistan about the failure to eliminate terrorism, and instead went to flirt with India - On October 10, the Afghan Foreign Minister Muttaki visited India, claiming it was the highest-level visit to India since the ATTA took power.

Therefore, some views believe that the air strike on Kabul by Pakistan on the same day was a warning to the ATTA's strategy of forming alliances and connections.

However, considering the domestic situations of both sides, the conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan has not shown signs of escalating into a full-scale war so far. However, if territorial disputes, cross-border security threats, and refugee and drug issues are not effectively resolved, the tense situation and friction between the two countries will continue to occur.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7560178526356537908/

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