Pakistan, Afghan Taliban Open China-Mediated Ceasefire Talks
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- Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban opened their first round of China-mediated ceasefire talks in Urumqi on Wednesday, with the initial session concluding that afternoon and expected to resume Thursday
- Pakistan's military fired mortars into Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province during the talks, killing two civilians and wounding six others — including four children — according to provincial police spokesman Farid Dehqan, who said the shelling was still ongoing two hours after it began
- Afghanistan dispatched a five-member delegation to Urumqi comprising two foreign ministry officials and one each from the defense, interior ministries and the country's intelligence agency
- The fighting since February is the most severe between the two countries in decades; Pakistan declared itself in "open war" and has launched airstrikes inside Afghanistan, including multiple strikes in Kabul
- Afghanistan claimed a Pakistani airstrike last month hit a drug-treatment center in Kabul, killing more than 400 people; Pakistan disputes that toll and says it struck an ammunition depot, with Information Minister Attaullah Tarar insisting Pakistan had "only targeted terrorist infrastructure"
- Prior mediation efforts — a Qatari-brokered October ceasefire, Saudi-hosted talks and a November round in Istanbul — all failed to produce a lasting agreement, and the source notes militant groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State remain present in the region
- Former Pakistani special envoy Asif Durrani said any deal's critical test will be a verification mechanism ensuring Afghan territory isn't used to launch attacks on Pakistan, the central dispute fueling the conflict
Why it matters: Pakistan's mortar fire into Kunar during the very hours of the Urumqi session shows how brittle this process is: both sides are negotiating and shooting simultaneously, and the core dispute — Pakistan's claim that Afghanistan harbors the Pakistani Taliban — has already sunk every prior ceasefire (Qatar in October, Saudi Arabia, Istanbul in November). For the millions of civilians on both sides of the border, the gap between what is announced at the table and what happens on the ground is the story that will determine whether this round produces anything different.
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