AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Taliban rulers in Afghanistan have agreed to a ceasefire with Pakistan after days of clashes that included Pakistani strikes on the Afghan capital of Kabul. NPR's Diaa Hadid tells us more.
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: The fighting began after militants from a group known as the TTP ambushed a Pakistani army convoy in early October, killing 11 soldiers in northwestern Pakistan, near the Afghan border. The TTP is committed to toppling the Pakistani state and establishing hard-line rule, like the Taliban did in Afghanistan after seizing power four years ago. The ambush of those soldiers appeared to hit Pakistan's military hard.
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HADID: Days later, the Pakistani army released a tribute to the slain men - in fact, shortly before the ceasefire was announced on Sunday.
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UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing in non-English language).
HADID: Their deaths came amid a deadly year.
ABDULLAH KHAN: Almost the deadliest in a decade.
HADID: Abdullah Khan is from the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies. He says these attacks have been increasing in number and lethality.
KHAN: This year alone, sir (ph), around 600 Pakistani security personnel have lost their lives in militant attacks.
HADID: Many of those security personnel were killed in TTP attacks. Pakistan accuses the Taliban of sheltering the TTP in Afghanistan, from where it conducts cross-border attacks. And so there was mounting frustration.
IBRAHEEM BAHISS: ...With how the Taliban have been managing groups that have a presence in Afghanistan.
HADID: Ibraheem Bahiss is an analyst with the International Crisis Group. He says Pakistan tried talks, even tried to pressure the Taliban through punitive measures like expelling hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees, deepening a humanitarian crisis in the country. The final straw may have been the Taliban's growing relations with India, Pakistan's neighbor and enemy.
So while the Taliban's foreign minister was on an official visit to India, local media reported that Pakistan struck the Afghan capital Kabul. Pakistan later struck Kandahar, the base of the Taliban's secretive leadership. Clashes erupted along border areas. Among the dozens of casualties were three local Afghan cricket players. They were killed in an airstrike while returning home after a match. Bahiss of the Crisis Group says the Taliban has long been reluctant to crack down on the TTP, partly because of the group's ideological alignment and...
BAHISS: So there's the question of whether the Taliban have the capacity to crack down on the TTB.
HADID: Still, Bahiss says, Pakistan itself might not have the capacity to rein in the group. It's gaining territory in Pakistan.
BAHISS: It has actually consolidated the militant landscape quite significantly.
HADID: For now, the ceasefire mediated by Qatar and Turkey on Sunday appears to be holding. A Taliban spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, tells NPR that Pakistan agreed to stop forcibly returning Afghan refugees. He says his government will not support attacks in Pakistan. And Pakistan's defense minister said on X that there'll be another round of talks next week. They'll have to grapple with the fundamental problem - how to crack down on an increasingly muscular militant group and whether the Taliban has the will to do it. Diaa Hadid, NPR News, Siolim. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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