| Latest News 2025Taliban are heightening military confrontations between Pakistan andAfghanistan, including deadly airstrikes killing civilians, amid regionalpower struggles and security threats.
ISLAMABAD: A fresh wave of military confrontation looms large betweenPakistan and Afghanistan, propelled by India’s burgeoning diplomaticovertures to the Taliban regime in Kabul, according to a detailed report inThe Washington Post. This escalating rift, unfolding against the backdropof cross-border skirmishes and tragic civilian casualties, signals aperilous shift in South Asia’s fragile geopolitical landscape. Analystswarn that the two nuclear-armed neighbors, already strained by disputedborder demarcations and insurgent activities, are inching toward afull-scale standoff that could engulf the region in chaos.
The catalyst, as outlined in the Washington Post’s analysis, is New Delhi’scalculated pivot toward the Taliban, a move that has long irked Islamabad.India, which has refrained from formally recognizing the Islamistgovernment, has nonetheless upgraded its diplomatic mission in Kabul toembassy status, forged a joint chamber of commerce, and initiatedairfreight corridors to bolster trade links. These steps come at a timewhen Afghanistan’s traditional trade routes through Pakistan face severedisruptions due to heightened security checks and retaliatory closures.Taliban officials have openly welcomed this engagement, viewing it as alifeline to circumvent economic isolation and counterbalance Pakistan’swaning influence post the 2021 U.S. withdrawal.
Pakistan’s frustration boils over accusations that Kabul harbors elementsof the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant faction blamed for asurge in attacks on Pakistani soil. Islamabad further alleges that Indianintelligence agencies are covertly aiding these insurgents from Afghan safehavens, a charge New Delhi vehemently denies. This toxic brew of mutualdistrust has manifested in deadly exchanges, including a devastatingPakistani airstrike in eastern Afghanistan’s Khost province on Tuesday. Theraid, targeting suspected TTP hideouts, claimed the lives of nine childrenand several other civilians, leaving grieving families to shovel earth overtiny graves in a heart-wrenching scene of devastation. Afghan authoritiesdecried the assault as a “barbaric violation” of sovereignty, vowingreprisals that have already seen Taliban-linked fighters probe Pakistaniborder posts.
Experts like Michael Kugelman, a South Asia specialist, describeAfghanistan as a perennial “battleground for Indian and Pakistani proxyinfluences,” with the current dynamics exacerbating a zero-sum game forregional dominance. The Taliban’s outreach to India, including high-profilevisits by its foreign minister to Deoband—a historic Islamic seminary innorthern India—underscores a deliberate diversification of alliances. Thiscomes amid Kabul’s accusations of Pakistani aggression, including dronestrikes that have killed scores in recent months. Border clashes haveintensified since last month’s fragile Qatar-brokered ceasefire frayed,with both sides reporting dozens of casualties in artillery duels andground incursions along the contentious Durand Line, which Afghanistanrefuses to acknowledge as its frontier.
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The broader implications ripple far beyond the porous 2,640-kilometerdivide. Heightened tensions threaten to destabilize trade corridors vitalfor Afghanistan’s war-ravaged economy and Pakistan’s strategic depth.International observers, including the United Nations, have urgedde-escalation through multilateral talks, but with global spotlights fixedon Ukraine and African conflicts, Asia’s brewing powder keg risks beingoverlooked. Pakistan’s military establishment, already stretched thin byinternal security demands, faces mounting pressure to respond decisivelywithout triggering an all-out war. Meanwhile, India’s assertivediplomacy—hailed by some as pragmatic realpolitik—could inadvertently fanflames that no regional power can fully control.
As families mourn the innocent in Khost and militaries mobilize along thefrontier, the specter of a new era of confrontation looms. Without urgentdiplomatic intervention, this volatile triangle of Pakistan, Afghanistan,and India threatens to redraw maps of influence through the barrel of agun, leaving civilians as the ultimate casualties in a renewed scramble forSouth Asian supremacy.
Source:www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/11/30/afghanistan-pakistan-india-taliban-ttp/”>https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/11/30/afghanistan-pakistan-india-taliban-ttp/
