Pak-Afghan tensions: a look back at the past four months

Tensions have been rife between Pakistan and Afghanistan for some months now, culminating in the launch of Operation Ghazab lil-Haq by Islamabad in the wee hours of Friday after unprovoked cross-border firing from Afghan side.

Tensions escalated following a series of security incidents, with Islamabad repeatedly expressing concern over terrorists groups allegedly operating from Afghan soil.

Here is a look at the major incidents that led up to the “immediate and effective response” from Pakistan against Afghan Taliban operatives.

October 11, 2025

Pakistan said security forces were conducting targeted operations in the country’s border regions to protect citizens from terrorist threats, including those posed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Tensions escalated sharply when Afghan forces launched an unprovoked attack on Pakistani border posts, sparking a series of clashes that left 23 Pakistani soldiers martyred and over 200 Taliban and affiliated terrorists dead, according to the military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

The Pakistan military responded with precision strikes inside Afghanistan’s Kandahar province and Kabul, targeting terrorist camps and border positions, while urging Kabul to act against terrorist groups operating from its soil.

Afghanistan claimed it carried out the border attack as a “retaliatory” measure, accusing Islamabad of conducting airstrikes on October 9. The two sides afterward agreed on a 48-hour ceasefire and to hold dialogue during that break.

Pakistan also closed its border with Afghanistan. Officials insisted the move was not a reaction to political tensions but a calculated, long-term strategy to dismantle an illicit trade corridor long linked to narcotics trafficking, illegal weapons movement, and militant infiltration.

October 19, 2025

Pakistan and Afghanistan reached an immediate ceasefire agreement following high-level negotiations held in Doha, Qatar, where both countries agreed to respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

October 26, 2025

Defence minister Khawaja Asif said he believed Afghanistan wanted peace but that failure to reach an agreement during talks in Istanbul would mean a “open war,”, days after both sides agreed to a ceasefire following deadly border clashes.

The talks were meant to devise a mechanism to enforce the Doha ceasefire longer term.

November 14, 2025

Pakistan information ministry issued a detailed follow-up report on the recent terrorist attack on Cadet College Wana, revealing that the assault was planned, directed, and executed from Afghanistan with full involvement of Afghan-based terrorists belonging to the Khawarij (terrorists) network.

November 28, 2025

Pakistan said the ceasefire understanding with Afghanistan could not be considered effective as terrorist attacks originating from Afghan soil had continued despite assurances.

Islamabad said the arrangement was never a “traditional ceasefire” between the two states but an understanding that Afghan-sponsored terrorist groups would cease attacks inside Pakistan.

“If Afghan nationals are continuously attacking, as seen recently in Islamabad and other places, we cannot be very optimistic about the ceasefire,” the Foreign Office spokesperson said then.

The spokesperson stressed that the understanding must be viewed strictly in the context of preventing cross-border terrorism, not as a conventional ceasefire between two countries.

February 19

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif warned that Islamabad would not hesitate to launch air operations inside Afghanistan to combat militancy, characterising the regional instability as the “price we are paying” for decisions made during the 1980s and after Sept 11 terrorist attacks.

February 22

Pakistan said its armed forces carried out strikes along the Pakistan Afghanistan border to target terrorist hideouts.

“In the aftermath of recent suicide bombing incidents in Pakistan, including Imam Bargah at Islamabad, one each in Bajaur and Bannu followed by another incident today in Bannu during the holy month of Ramzan, Pakistan has conclusive evidence that these acts of terrorism were perpetrated by Khwarij on behest of their Afghanistan-based leadership and handlers,” Pakistan’s information ministry said then.