Foreign & Public Diplomacy

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: The Afghanistan-Pakistan conflict intensifies with a strike on a Kabul hospital, some South Asian countries secure energy relief as traffic trickles through the Strait of Hormuz, and Nepal’s interim prime minister finds herself under fire as a new government prepares to take office.

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s South Asia Brief.

The highlights this week: The Afghanistan-Pakistan conflict intensifies with a strike on a Kabul hospital, some South Asian countries secure energy relief as traffic trickles through the Strait of Hormuz, and Nepal’s interim prime minister finds herself under fire as a new government prepares to take office.

Afghanistan-Pakistan Conflict Intensifies

Amid deepening conflict in the Middle East, the overlooked conflict between Afghanistan and Pakistan is intensifying—and de-escalation looks very unlikely. On Tuesday, the Taliban regime accused Pakistan of bombing a hospital in Kabul, killing more than 400 people—the deadliest single incident in the conflict so far.

Islamabad denied the allegation, contending that its strikes targeted “military installations and terrorist support infrastructure.” Pakistan insists that Afghanistan is sheltering the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group that has staged increasing attacks on Pakistani territory since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021.

However, multiple media outlets and independent aid groups on the scene seemed to corroborate the Afghan account. The Norwegian Refugee Council said the site was a hospital that provides drug rehabilitation services and estimated that hundreds of civilians were killed and injured.

The strike came a few days after Islamabad accused the Taliban of launching drone attacks in civilian areas across Pakistan, crossing of a “red line,” according to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. Pakistani forces responded with operations that hit an Afghan drone storage facility.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are suffering their worst violence in years, which is flying under the radar as war also rages nearby in Iran. Pakistan has carried out airstrikes across Afghanistan, with the Taliban retaliating with operations on Pakistani border posts and occasionally with kinetic actions deeper in Pakistani territory.

After a round of deadly violence in October, talks mediated by Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey resulted in a cease-fire—but not a pledge by the Taliban to curb the TTP. The violence soon resumed, and the three states that........

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