On February 27, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) bombed Kabul, Paktia and Kandahar in Afghanistan just hours after a cross-border attack by Afghan forces. Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif then declared that although Islamabad “made every effort, both directly and through friendly countries, to keep the situation stable,” “open war” now exists between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban government. Russia and Iran called upon both sides to halt the war and offered mediation. India condemned the PAF’s bombing.

Afghanistan claimed its February 26 cross-border attack was retaliation for Pakistan’s Operation Ghazab-lil-Haq (which reportedly killed 133 Afghan Taliban fighters and injured over 200) — which Pakistan averred was “retaliatory”. The reality is that there have been 70 to 80 tit-for-tat attacks by both sides ever since the US-led forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, with tensions peaking after the deadly clash in October 2025.

The fighting between these two Muslim nations, both largely Sunni, surprises many who believe that both enjoyed a close, symbiotic relationship. The reality is that there’s no love lost between the two, with the roots of a festering animosity embedded in the region’s demographics and the Durand Line.

Mountains divide communities, and in Afghanistan, this division is aggravated even today by the lack of a robust inland transportation system. Hence, Afghanistan, rarely integrated as a complete nation; it has Tajiks with ties to Tajikistan, Uzbeks with ties to Uzbekistan, Pashtuns astride the Durand Line, pro-Iranian........

© Indian Express