The Afghanistan/Pakistan Love Affair

Ariana News

"Strong combat broke out in numerous areas of the 2,600-kilometer Durand Line in early October 2025, especially in the vicinity of Kunar, Spin Boldak–Chaman and the Kurram tribal region. While Kabul denounced Pakistan’s retaliatory airstrikes in Kandahar and Paktika as flagrant violations of sovereignty, Pakistan accused the Taliban government of providing sanctuary to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants responsible for deadly raids inside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Numerous people were killed in the fighting, which also blocked important commerce routes and interfered with humanitarian supplies."

"After the two regimes declared an emergency ceasefire on October 19, Qatar and Turkey mediated the conflict in Doha. Both governments promised to stop the attacks, restore communication channels, and set up verification processes. Although the truce provided temporary respite, it revealed underlying structural divisions, especially in relation to Pakistan regime’s demand that Taliban regime stop TTP activities and the Taliban’s insistence that Pakistan respect Afghan territorial integrity."

Australian Institute of International Affairs 

 

The U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 under UN approval in the wake of 9/11, saw a multitude of countries joining Operation Enduring Freedom, mostly NATO members. At that time Pakistan aligned itself on the surface with the U.S.declaring itself part of a coalition fighting terrorism. While in actual fact, the Taliban was given haven in Pakistan, as was Osama bin Laden, living at Abbottabad not far from a Pakistan military base. Pakistan's own Taliban was just getting started, inspired no doubt, by the Afghan Taliban.

 

Fast forward to the present, and Afghanistan now governed by the fundamentalist Taliban. Pakistan's designs on controlling Afghanistan, and keeping India out of the country have rather soured now that the Taliban for better or for worse -- and as it happens, much worse -- is in power and Pakistan now struggling against its very own terrorist Taliban, blames the government in Afghanistan with sheltering Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, and for its troubles having Pakistan penalize it by cutting off a vital trade route.

 

One of the largest, once-bustling markets in Peshawar where thousands of shops owned by Afghans selling a wide variety of consumer goods is now a wan image of itself with the closure of hundreds of Afghan shops. A deep chasm has resulted between Afghanistan and Pakistan with their traditional trade routes impacted with cross-border trade having been cut by Pakistan as punishment for the Taliban administration failing to cooperate with Pakistan's demands it stop giving haven to the terrorists that have attacked and killed members of Pakistan's military.

 

Millions of farmers, traders and communities in both countries have been impacted by the suspension of  trade. Trucks carrying coal, cement, pomegranates, cotton, medicine and other goods valued to $2 billion in bilateral trade have been held up for months. Pakistan's 250 million population represented a plentiful consumer base for Afghanistan. But they and access to India -- vital to the Afghan economy -- have been hit a powerful blow for the Taliban government, already suffering from the forced return of over 2.5 million of its nationals from neighbouring countries, and the damage inflicted by two deadly earthquakes.

 

Hundreds of trucks and trailers have been standing idle since October 11 near the busiest border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan, after deadly clashes resulted in suspension of trade |Photo: Reuters

 

Hundreds of trailer trucks have been parked along the road running through the border near Peshawar, since October 11. Most crossings have been barred by Pakistani border guards, with the exception of Afghan nationals returning home. "When they stopped us here, it was still summer. Now winter is right upon us", moaned Abdul Wakeel at the Torkham border crossing. Although the Taliban denied supporting Pakistani Taliban, Pakistan expelled over a million Afghans and carried out strikes on Kabul and Kandahar, resulting in the deaths of dozens of soldiers on both sides.

 

Over half of Afghanistan's 42 million people require humanitarian assistance, while containers brimming with aid stand blocked at the border. Pakistan itself faces a rising poverty rate of 25 percent; the trade standoff benefits neither country. Peshawar, about 48 kilometers from the border with a sizeable Afghan population among its two million residents, has been struck particularly brutally by the situation. "We're caught in between the politics of two countries", observed Syed Naqeeb Badshah, president of a lobby group representing Afghan traders in Pakistan, resignedly. 

 

These trucks are loaded with the belongings of Afghans attempting to return to their country after Pakistan closed border crossings with Afghanistan. They were pictured at the border crossing in Chaman, Pakistan, on Oct. 16.  Reuters