Pakistan resumes military operations against Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s military resumed operations against Afghanistan after a temporary pause, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said on Thursday, dashing hopes of a permanent ceasefire.

Pakistan and Afghanistan’s worst fighting in years erupted last month, claiming heavy human losses on both sides.

Kabul said more than 400 people were killed in a Pakistani air strike on a drug rehabilitation centre in the Afghan capital last week before the neighbours suspended fighting.Pakistan rejected the Taliban’s statements about the strike, saying it had “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure”.

A pause in hostilities was announced for the Islamic festival of Eid al-Fitr, which Islamabad says was also requested by Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

READ MORE: Pakistan, Afghanistan to pause fighting for Eid

“The pause has concluded midnight between, I think, 23rd and 24th March,” said Tahir Andrabi, the spokesperson at a weekly foreign ministry briefing in Islamabad.

He said the operations would continue until the objectives are achieved, and until the Afghan Taliban administration reviewed what he called its misplaced priority of supporting terrorist infrastructure.

Islamabad accuses the Afghan Taliban of harbouring and supporting Islamist militants who carry out attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul denies it, saying the militancy is Pakistan’s domestic problem.

Border crossing temporarily reopened

Trade at the main border crossings between the two neighbours has been suspended since the Pakistani military launched its first air strikes in October.

Torkham border crossing in northwest Pakistan was temporarily opened on Thursday for hundreds of Afghan refugees to go back home, officials said.

“We have been stranded here for at least a month and a half,” Zabi Ullah, an Afghan refugee who was waiting for the border to open, told Reuters TV. “There are also sick relatives with us.”

Pakistan has hosted over two million Afghan refugees sheltering from successive cycles of war in Afghanistan over the decades.

Islamabad wants all Afghan nationals to leave – except for those who have valid visas – saying they had been involved in militant attacks and other crimes.

Pakistan’s repatriation drive is part of a campaign called the Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan launched in late 2023.

The United Nations calls sending the refugees back a violation of international obligations.