From friends to foes: Why is Pakistan striking Afghanistan? Why have ties hit a low?

All is not well between Pakistan and Afghanistan. On Tuesday, Islamabad launched new airstrikes on the Barmal district of Paktika province in Afghanistan, killing 46 civilians. This is the latest spike in hostilities between the two nations since the Taliban took control of Kabul in 2021

The Taliban-led Afghan administration has promised retaliation after Pakistan launched air raids on Tuesday night inside Afghan territory. AP

They were once considered allies. However, in recent times, they have become enemies. We are talking about Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Kabul, under the Taliban regime, has registered a strong protest with Islamabad over an airstrike the latter carried out on December 24 near the Pak-Afghan border, warning that Afghanistan’s territorial sovereignty was a red line. The aerial action has led to the killing of 46 civilians, said the Taliban government, which has termed the strikes as “barbaric” and a “clear aggression”.

The strikes are the latest spike in hostilities between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with tensions escalating since the Taliban seized power in 2021.

Airstrikes in Paktika province

On December 24, Pakistan reportedly carried out airstrikes on the Barmal district of Paktika province in Afghanistan, resulting in the death of 46 people, including women and children.

Islamabad has not confirmed nor denied responsibility for the strikes, but a senior official told AFP that the strikes were on “terrorist hideouts” using jets and drones. The unnamed official added that the strike had taken out at least 20 militants from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

However, the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan has condemned the strikes, calling it a “cowardly attack” and even vowed retaliation for the strike. The Taliban defence ministry in a statement said, “The Islamic Emirate will not leave this cowardly act unanswered, but rather considers the defence of its territory and sovereignty to be its inalienable right.”

Furthermore, the Afghan Taliban even summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaires on Wednesday (December 25) to register its strong condemnation against the strikes. In a statement, the Afghan foreign ministry condemned the “aggression by Pakistani military”. The killing of common citizens by “certain quarters” was an attempt to create distrust in relations between the two countries, it added.

These strikes follow the March raids. Then, Pakistan launched airstrikes against several suspected hideouts of the TTP in Afghanistan’s Khost and Paktika provinces. The Afghan Taliban responded by firing on Pakistani positions along the border.

Hostilities rise between Pak-Afghan

In the recent past, tensions between the two neighbouring countries have been running high, with Islamabad repeatedly accusing the Afghan government of harbouring armed groups, especially the TTP, which it claims carries out cross-border attacks targeting Pakistani security forces.

Just last week, TTP fighters claimed responsibility for killing at least 16 Pakistani soldiers in South Waziristan in one of the deadliest recent attacks on security personnel. In a UN Security Council briefing last week, Pakistani diplomat Usman Iqbal Jadoon said, “The TTP, with 6,000 fighters, is the largest listed terrorist organisation operating in Afghanistan. With safe havens close to our border, it poses a direct and daily threat to Pakistan’s security.”

Data shows that 2023 was among the bloodiest years in recent Pakistani history, with more than 650 attacks across the country, killing nearly 1,000 people, mostly from law enforcement agencies and the military. Most of the attacks on security personnel were claimed by the Pakistan Taliban, along with other relatively lesser-known armed groups.

However, the Taliban denies providing refuge to armed groups or allowing their territory to be used for cross-border attacks.

A man stands with his passport and identity cards of his family members, at a closed pedestrian crossing gate at the crossing border, in Torkham, Pakistan. File image/Reuters

Cross-border skirmishes between Pakistan and Afghanistan also led Islamabad to shut down the Torkham border for three days. The closure of the key border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan caused heavy losses to already depreciating trade between the two neighbours.

In addition to this, Pakistan also has carried out mass deportations of Afghan refugees. After ousting about 541,000 Afghan refugees in November 2023, Islamabad announced in June that it would carry out a similar drive, expelling more than 800,000 Afghans from the country. The Pakistan government defended their actions, citing security concerns and a struggling economy.

Unsurprisingly, this evoked a strong response from the Taliban government. The government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid had urged Pakistan to rethink its decision, adding that Pakistan “should tolerate them”.

Sami Yousafzai, a journalist and a longtime observer of Pakistan-Afghanistan ties, said to Al Jazeera that the conflict between the two countries is similar to a fight between two cousins. “These two neighbours act like they are cousins. They cannot leave each other, but they cannot find a way to fix their relationship either. And in all this fighting, it is impacting the public-to-public relations between them,” he told Al Jazeera.

Afghan refugee children sit on a truck loaded with belongings as they along with their families prepare to return home, after Pakistan gives the last warning to undocumented immigrants to leave, outside the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) repatriation centres in Azakhel town in Nowshera, Pakistan. File image/Reuters

From friends to foes

Historically, Pakistan has been seen as a patron of the Afghan Taliban, which first rose to power in 1996. It was believed to hold considerable sway on the Taliban leadership, whom it sheltered, funded and shielded diplomatically.

“Fearing Soviet influence, Pakistan became a key conduit for Western aid to the Afghan Mujahideen, a collection of rebel groups fighting against the Soviets,” Ubaidullah Khilji, an Afghan history researcher currently based in Islamabad, told DW.

When the Taliban seized power in 2021, Islamabad assumed that their good ties would also resume. In fact, Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, then head of Pakistan’s notorious Inter-Services Intelligence agency, took what seemed a victory lap in the Afghan capital, Kabul. “Please don’t worry — everything will be OK,” he told a Western journalist while smiling and sipping tea in the five-star Sarena Hotel.

However, Pakistan’s hopes evaporated within the first 12 months of Taliban rule in Kabul. According to Adam Weinstein, deputy director of the Middle East programme at the US think tank, the Quincy Institute, the Taliban believed they were no longer reliant on Pakistan.

Moreover, the Taliban is forging new partnerships. Many countries such as China, Russia, Iran and some Central Asian states are cautiously engaging with the regime.

It remains to be seen if Afghanistan-Pakistan ties can go back to those of the past, but experts believe that it may not happen.