Pakistan said Thursday (April 2, 2026) that the burden of ending its cross-border conflict lay with Afghanistan, as the two sides held preliminary talks to try to end hostilities.

The neighbours and one-time allies have been locked in an escalating conflict over claims from Islamabad that Afghanistan is harbouring militants responsible for cross-border attacks, which the Taliban government denies.

​No end to suffering: On the Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict

Negotiations in Urumqi, in northwest China, were announced Wednesday (April 1, 2026) by Pakistan, after Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar travelled to Beijing for talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.

Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir Hussain Andrabi told reporters in the capital that the government hoped for a “durable solution”.

“Our participation (in talks) is a reiteration of our core concerns,” he said.

“The burden of real process, however, lies with Afghanistan, which must demonstrate visible and verifiable actions against terrorist groups using (its) soil against Pakistan.”

Following China’s request for talks, the Taliban government said it had sent a “mid-level delegation” to Urumqi.

The Afghan side “intends to hold comprehensive and responsible talks with the other side on good neighbourliness, strengthening trade relations, and effective management of security issues”, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said.

Pakistan described the negotiations as “working level talks”.

“Our delegation has not returned yet,” Islamabad’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Beijing deployed a special envoy to try to broker a deal last month, but the diplomatic effort was followed by Pakistani strikes on a Kabul rehab centre that prompted international condemnation.

More than 400 people were killed in the attack, according to Afghan officials, which Islamabad said targeted military installations.

The two sides then announced a pause in fighting to mark the end of Ramadan, at the request of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.

But sporadic attacks have been reported in border areas since the temporary truce ended.

Pakistani shelling killed two civilians and wounded 10 others on Wednesday (April 1, 2026), a provincial official said.

Two of those wounded were in critical condition, Najib Hanif, Kunar province information chief, told AFP.

While addressing hostilities with its neighbour, Pakistan has also been engaged in a flurry of diplomacy to try to bring Washington and Tehran to the table and end their war.

China has backed Pakistan’s efforts, aligning itself with the aims of Gulf countries affected by the spread of the conflict in the region.

Afghanistan’s government accused Pakistan’s military of shelling the outskirts of an eastern Afghan city on Sunday (March 30, 2026), killing one person and wounding more than a dozen in the latest episode of renewed fighting between the two neighbouring countries.

The fighting, which erupted in late February, has been the most severe between Afghanistan and Pakistan in decades.

Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of providing a safe haven for militants who carry out attacks inside Pakistan, especially for the Pakistani Taliban. The group is separate but closely allied with the Afghan Taliban, which seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 during the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led troops. Kabul denies the allegation.

Afghan deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said that “mortars and other heavy weaponry” were used Sunday afternoon to strike rural areas and civilian homes on the outskirts of the city of Asadabad in Kunar Province.

In a post on X accompanied by photos of wounded children, Mr. Fitrat said that preliminary figures indicated that one person had been killed and 16 others were wounded, mostly women and children. There was no immediate response from Pakistan to the accusations.

The fighting between Afghanistan and Pakistan has seen repeated cross-border clashes as well as airstrikes inside Afghanistan, including several in the Afghan capital Kabul.

Earlier this month, Afghanistan said that a Pakistani airstrike had hit a drug treatment hospital in Kabul, killing more than 400 people. The U.N. humanitarian affairs office has said the total death toll is still under verification. Pakistan has disputed the claim and denied targeting civilians, saying that it struck an ammunition depot.

The fighting in February began when Afghanistan launched a cross-border raid into Pakistan, saying it was in retaliation for deadly Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas that it said had killed only civilians. Islamabad had said the strikes were targeting militants.

Last month, Pakistan declared that it was in “open war” with Afghanistan. The conflict has alarmed the international community, particularly as the area is one where other militant organizations, including al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, still have a presence and have been trying to resurface.

The two sides declared a temporary truce last week before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, following mediation by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar. The truce expired earlier this week, and renewed fighting erupted on Wednesday, with Afghan officials saying that at least two civilians had been killed in eastern Afghanistan.

Tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan has been high for months. The most recent fighting has upended a Qatari-mediated ceasefire in October that had halted earlier clashes between the two sides that had killed dozens of civilians, security forces and militants. The two sides differ widely on the casualty figures.

Peace talks held in Istanbul in November failed to reach a long-term solution.

Against the backdrop of continued hostilities between Pakistan and Afghanistan, Minister of Industry and Commerce of the Taliban administration Alhaj Nooruddin Azizi started a five-day tour of India on Wednesday (November 19, 2025).

Official sources said the visit, which highlights Afghanistan’s desire to avoid Pakistani ports for its commercial requirements, will help Afghanistan bypass Pakistan for enhanced connectivity.

The visit is being viewed as a significant outreach by the Taliban administration as it is taking place a month after External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar hosted Taliban’s Acting Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi in Delhi when both sides strengthened the air freight corridor to enhance direct trade and commerce. The air corridor between the two sides will connect Delhi, Mumbai and Amritsar with Kabul and Kandahar.

Mr. Azizi, who has come with a large business delegation, visited the India International Trade Fair (IITF) 2025 on Wednesday (November 19, 2025) to strengthen bilateral trade and investment. The visiting Afghan team met Neeraj Kharwal, Managing Director of India Trade Promotion Organisation, who explained opportunities for greater participation of Afghanistan in future trade events in India. Mr. Azizi met with a number of Indian business representatives soon after his arrival in New Delhi.

Mr. Azizi visited stalls set up by Afghan traders in the IITF that are showcasing Afghan agricultural products. The visit by the Afghan trade Minister, a first since 2021 when the Taliban took charge of Kabul, is expected to boost key Indian exports to Afghanistan, such as pharmaceuticals, textiles, machinery, sugar, tea and rice. India is keen to import Afghan agricultural products such as fresh and dry fruits, and minerals that have a sizable market in India.

Sources said the visit by Mr. Azizi will provide both sides an opportunity to explore greater Indian investment options in the Afghan mining sector and hydroelectric projects. Diplomatic sources said that Afghanistan, in recent months, has been using the Chabahar port of Iran for most of its commercial requirements as it tries to reduce dependence on the Karachi port.

The Taliban administration has ordered Afghan traders to stop using Pakistani ports and commercial networks after a peace talk between Afghanistan and Pakistan brokered by Turkey failed to resolve the conflict that intensified when the Pakistan air force bombed targets inside Afghanistan on October 9. Pakistan has been accusing the Taliban of supporting Tehreek–e–Taliban Pakistan for carrying out terror strikes inside Pakistan.

Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Monday (October 20, 2025) said the ceasefire arrangement with Afghanistan hinges on Taliban’s commitment to rein in terrorists attacking his country from across the border.

His statement comes a day after both sides agreed on a ceasefire following talks in Doha, which were facilitated by Qatar and Turkiye.

“Anything coming from Afghanistan will be [a] violation of this agreement,” Asif was quoted as saying Dawn. “Everything hinges on this one clause.”

He said that in the agreement signed by Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkiye and Qatar, “it was clearly spelled out that there would not be any incursions”.

“We have a ceasefire agreement as long as there is no violation of the agreement which is already in force,” he said.

Mr. Asif has said that the primary objective of the ceasefire agreement between Pakistan and Afghanistan is to eliminate the menace of terrorism.

According to state-run Radio Pakistan, in an interview with Al-Jazeera Arabic, the minister said that terrorism has been affecting border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan for years.

He said that both countries have reached the conclusion that immediate elimination of terrorism is essential and the two countries will make serious efforts to curb terrorism, otherwise, regional peace could face serious threats.

Mr. Asif said another meeting will be held next week in Istanbul to finalize the details of the agreement.

He said Afghan Defence Minister Mullah Yaqoob acknowledged that terrorism is the main reason behind the tensions in our relations, which will now be addressed.

He hoped that peace will now return, and relations will normalize between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

As a result, Pakistan-Afghanistan trade and transit will also resume, and Afghanistan will be able to use Pakistani ports.

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have remained strained since 2023, with Islamabad repeatedly raising concerns over the use of Afghan soil by militants carrying out cross-border attacks.

The situation further deteriorated following repeated terrorist attacks by TTP, including one in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Orakzai district recently, which claimed the lives of 11 military personnel, including a Lt Colonel and a Major.

Afghanistan have pulled out of a tri-nation series with Pakistan and Sri Lanka next month after three local cricketers were killed in an attack, the country’s cricket board said on Friday (October 17, 2025).

The ACB said that the players had travelled from Urgun to Sharana in the eastern Paktika province on the Pakistan border to take part in a friendly match.

It said that “after returning home to Urgun, they were targeted during a gathering” in what it described as “a cowardly attack carried out by the Pakistani regime”.

The ACB named the three players as “Kabeer, Sibghatullah and Haroon”, and said that five other people were also killed in the attack.

The ACB did not give any more details on the attack.

It said that it “considers this a great loss for Afghanistan’s sports community, its athletes, and the cricketing family”, while extending its “deepest condolences and solidarity to the bereaved families”.

The ACB said that it had decided to withdraw from next month’s tri-series “as a gesture of respect to the victims”.

“The massacre of innocent civilians and our domestic cricket players by these oppressors is a heinous, unforgivable crime,” wrote Afghan international cricketer Fazalhaq Farooqi on Facebook.

Another international player, Mohammad Nabi, added: “This incident is not only a tragedy for Paktika but for the entire Afghan cricket family and the nation as a whole.”

Afghanistan wants peaceful resolution of its conflict with Pakistan but if the efforts don’t succeed, it has other means, Afghanistan’s Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said on Sunday (October 12, 2025).

Mr. Muttaqi’s comments at a media briefing at the Afghan Embassy came amid escalating tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Pakistan carried out air strikes in Kabul on Thursday (October 9, 2025), and it followed clashes between the two sides.

Mr. Muttaqi said the situation is under control now.

“We want a peaceful resolution of the situation, but if the peace efforts don’t succeed, we have other options,” the Afghan Acting Foreign Minister said.

“We have good relations with the people of Pakistan and the government but some elements in that country are trying to create problems,” Mr. Muttaqi said.