Suicide car bomber strikes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa amid unconfirmed reports that Qatar has offered to host peace talks.
Tensions are mounting between Pakistan and Afghanistan amid reports of a brutal border attack on the former’s troops as a fragile truce between the neighbours, and once allies, nears its expiry.
A 48-hour ceasefire between the two sides, which came into effect this week after days of bloody cross-border attacks, is set to expire at 13:00 GMT on Friday.
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As the end of the truce approached, Pakistani police official Irfan Ali said a suicide car bomber backed by Pakistan Taliban, known by the acronym TTP, attacked a military compound in Mir Ali, a city in North Waziristan district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Accounts of losses suffered during the attack varied.
The official, quoted by news agency The Associated Press, said three fighters were killed in an intense shootout and did not report any troop casualties.
News agency Reuters quoted Pakistani security officials as saying seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack by a fighter who rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the wall of a Pakistani military camp in North Waziristan.
The anonymous officials said two other fighters were shot dead as they tried to get into the facility. At least 13 were left injured.
Pakistan’s Geo News reported that four assailants from TTP were killed in a suicide attack on a military camp in North Waziristan, with security sources saying security forces had suffered no losses.
Pakistan’s army did not immediately comment.
Deadly clashes
The truce, imposed on Wednesday, brought a temporary halt to the deadliest clashes between the neighbours since 2021, when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of United States and NATO forces.
The conflict, which threatens to destabilise a region where groups like ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda are trying to resurface, was triggered after Islamabad demanded that Kabul rein in fighters who had stepped up attacks in Pakistan, saying they operated from havens in Afghanistan.
The Taliban denies the charge and accuses the Pakistani military of spreading misinformation about Afghanistan, provoking border tensions, and sheltering fighters to undermine its stability and sovereignty.
Media reported that Qatar has offered to host peace talks between the two countries in Doha, though neither government has confirmed the offer.
Reporting from Peshawar, Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder said there had been “some talk of a meeting in Doha … Friendly countries are trying to make efforts in order to ensure that the ceasefire is extended,” he said.
He described the situation on the border as “tense”, adding that Pakistan had stated that unless the Afghan side addressed its concerns, the situation would be “precarious and can escalate at any moment”.
Afghanistan’s Taliban government said on Thursday that Pakistan had carried out two drone attacks on Kabul the previous day, just before the ceasefire came into effect. Doctors told AP that five people were killed and dozens were injured.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said on Thursday that 37 civilians were killed and 425 were wounded in Afghanistan as a result of cross-border clashes with Pakistan this week.
Pakistan has not provided figures for civilian casualties suffered on its side of the border.
On Thursday, Dawn cited Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the military, as saying 34 “India-backed terrorists” from “Fitna-al-Khawarij” – the government’s term for TTP – had been killed during multiple operations across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the week.