Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan are witnessing a dangerous military escalation after months of tension on the border and exchange of accusations regarding the presence of armed groups. In recent days, Pakistan has carried out air strikes on areas in Afghanistan, in response to attacks by Afghan Taliban forces. Which intensified the crisis between the two neighbors. The roots of the conflict go back to historical disputes over the Durand border line, in addition to regional conflicts and Afghanistan's new economic alliances with India, China, and Russia, which complicates the scene and makes the current tensions a threat to the entire regional balance.

Published on: 02/27/2026 - 14:30 Last updated: 02/27/2026 - 14:35

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On the night of Thursday-Friday, military confrontations broke out between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistani forces bombed several areas in the capital, Kabul, and other Afghan cities, after the Taliban government announced an attack on the neighboring country, suddenly raising tensions between the two neighboring countries.

At dawn on Friday, the Pakistani Air Force launched raids on the capital, Kabul, and the provinces of Kandahar and Paktika (east of the country) in response to a military attack carried out by Afghan forces on the border areas with Pakistan.

On the same day, Pakistani Information Minister Atallah Sharif confirmed that his country had killed a number of Afghan Taliban members, wounded hundreds, and destroyed military and defensive sites belonging to the movement.

This escalation, which came after months of escalating tensions and mutual accusations regarding border security and the presence of armed groups, threatens to turn the chronic conflict into an open confrontation whose repercussions may go beyond the bilateral framework to affect entire regional balances.

It is not the first time that military clashes have broken out between the two neighboring countries, which have always shared close relations in the recent past.

But since October 2025, the crisis between the two countries has deepened, especially after Pakistani Taliban fighters carried out attacks along the Pakistani border. Which made Islamabad respond with air attacks. Talks that took place in 2025 between Kabul and Islamabad in Doha led to the signing of a ceasefire resolution between the two sides. However, it did not stand up to reality.

What are the causes and roots of the dispute between the two countries and the accusations that each party directs against the other?

The roots of confrontation

The Pakistani authorities confirmed that the attacks that targeted their territory in October 2025, as a result of which many Pakistani soldiers were killed, were carried out by a Pakistani Taliban movement called “Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.”

Kabul accused this movement of providing support and harboring elements on its territory, that is, inside Afghanistan, an accusation denied several times by the Kabul government, which in turn accused Islamabad of supporting and harboring elements of the "Islamic State" organization, which launched several suicide operations in Afghanistan.

But Pakistan also denied providing any support to this terrorist organization.

It should be noted that the Afghan Taliban movement had benefited in the past from the military and logistical support provided by the Pakistani Taliban movement, especially during the war against American forces and the international coalition.

The Durand Line and the border crisis

This crisis, which is still unresolved to this day, dates back to 1893 during the British occupation, when the border between the two countries was drawn by the British military ruler Henry Durand and the then ruler of Afghanistan, Abdul Rahman Khan.

The line that fuels the conflict today between the two countries is called the "Durand" line. It extends over a distance of approximately 2,600 kilometers, dividing millions of Pashtun people (the majority in Afghanistan, i.e. about 25 million people) geographically between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and did not provide a detail of the borders between the two countries, ignoring the overlap of lands, which led to igniting repeated disputes between the two neighbors, while both of them try to seize additional lands.

For its part, Kabul accused its neighbor Pakistan of exploiting the repeated wars it fought, whether against the former Soviet Union or the United States, to penetrate further into its territory.

In 2021, when the Taliban took power, it reopened the file of borders and lands that it says were stolen by Pakistan, and demanded that Islamabad recover them. What further complicated the crisis was Pakistan's construction of a 3-meter-high concrete fence on its borders to prevent the influx of illegal Afghan refugees into its territory. The Taliban considers this line "imaginary."

Afghanistan's position on the Durand Line

Successive Afghan governments did not recognize the internationally recognized "Durand" line, but rather continued to demand the return of the lands that were stolen from them, under the pretext that the demarcation carved out large lands inhabited by Afghan Pashtun tribes in the southwest of the country.

On the other hand, Pakistan believes that Kabul's demands are illegitimate and affect its territorial sovereignty, stressing that the "Durand" line separating it from Afghanistan is internationally recognized by the United Nations. Pakistan also accuses separatist armed groups of using Afghan territory to launch attacks on its territory.

Afghan-Indian rapprochement at the expense of Pakistan?

The fact that Afghanistan is a semi-isolated country has made it develop strategic economic relations with Pakistan, with which it shares a border strip of about 2,600 kilometers, and depends mainly on Pakistani products and exports.

What increased this economic dependency was the fact that it did not have a sea corridor, and the mountainous nature of its lands, which made it difficult to navigate. But about three years ago, the Taliban began diversifying its economic partnerships, particularly with India, Pakistan's arch-enemy, as well as China.

In this context, in October 2025, Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mottaki made a week-long visit to New Delhi, with the aim of restoring diplomatic relations between the two countries and strengthening economic relations, which is the first official visit since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

Pakistan did not digest this visit, and considered it an opportunity for New Delhi to gradually impose its influence in Afghanistan and market its goods there, in addition to using the Afghan land borders by India to market its products in Central Asian markets without passing through Pakistani territory.

Ambitious relations with China and Russia

In addition to India, the Taliban is seeking to build new relationships with China and Russia. It should be noted that Moscow has recognized the Taliban and has diplomatic and economic relations with them.

As for China, although it has not officially recognized the Taliban government, it shares significant economic relations with Afghanistan, which is an important market for Chinese goods.

The goal of this diversification of political and economic relations, according to observers, is to break free from the economic dependency that Pakistan has imposed on Afghanistan for decades, and by virtue of geography.

But today, Islamabad believes that Afghan foreign policy poses a threat to its internal balances, whether in the economic or strategic sphere. It also fears that India will interfere more in Afghan internal affairs, or make Afghanistan a base that may threaten its interests in the region in the future.

Pakistan and Afghanistan: ambiguous and ambiguous relations for a long time

The file of relations between the Taliban and Pakistan is complex and ambiguous, in the opinion of a number of observers. The Pakistani army and intelligence services played an important role during the war waged by the Afghan rebels against the Soviet invasion in the 1980s, providing them with weapons, training, and financing.

These relations continued with some factions after the withdrawal of Soviet forces and the outbreak of the civil war that followed. Pakistan also supported the Taliban during their first rise to power.

After the American invasion of Afghanistan in 2002, Taliban members often found refuge inside Pakistani territory, and despite the Pakistani government’s alliance with the United States, it turned a blind eye to their presence on its territory. This mysterious relationship between the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani government remained in place throughout twenty years of the American presence in Afghanistan.

But this policy was not without calculations. By supporting the Taliban, Islamabad, according to observers, aspired to resolve the border issue once and for all after the movement came to power. But the renewed war and fighting between the two sides proves that this issue has not been completely resolved.

Taher Hani

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