FO Talks: Why Pakistan’s Taliban Strategy Backfired and Triggered War on Its Own Border

FO Talks: Why Pakistan’s Taliban Strategy Backfired and Triggered War on Its Own Border

Fair Observer’s Video Producer Rohan Khattar Singh and Professor Thomas Barfield explore why escalating clashes between the Taliban government in Afghanistan and the Pakistani army reflect far more than a border dispute. Along the Durand Line, a frontier that has long defied stable governance, Pakistan now faces the consequences of a strategy that once seemed to serve its interests. What once appeared to be strategic depth has evolved into a sec…

Pakistani Border Post Captured in Khost Clash

A Pakistani border post was captured during fresh clashes in Khost, Afghan local officials said. Kabul and Islamabad clashed in Khost as peace talks continued in China, while both sides pressed sharply conflicting claims over casualties and battlefield losses. Taliban local authorities in Khost said their forces clashed with Pakistani border troops in a frontier area of the province, claiming they captured a Pakistani post during the fighting. P…

Taliban claim seizure of Pakistani border post as clashes continue

Taliban said on Monday that they had seized a Pakistani border post in eastern Afghanistan after a clash with Pakistani troops, as the cross-border clashes continue for the sixth week. Quoting local Taliban officials in Khost, the Taliban-run national broadcaster, RTA, reported that the confrontation occurred in a border area where Taliban and Pakistani troops exchanged fire. They claimed that the outpost was captured during the fighting and tha…

No Easy Exit: The Entrenched Dynamics Behind The Pakistan-Afghanistan Conflict

Pakistan and Afghanistan have continued to conduct cross-border strikes in a conflict that began on February 26th, when Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif described the state of relations between the two countries as “open war.” The escalation has seen the most intense fighting between the two nations since the Taliban came to power in 2021. The true casualty count remains contested. The Taliban’s Defense Ministry claimed that the March 6th…