Pakistan-Afghanistan Agree To Extend Ceasefire

UNSPLASH/Mohammad Husaini ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to extend the ceasefire 48 hours until the end of negotiations in Doha, according to three Pakistani security officials and one Afghan Taliban source.

Reported by Reuters, a Pakistani delegation arrived in Doha, while one Afghan delegation arrived in the capital Qatar on Saturday, October 18.

News of a ceasefire extension comes just hours after a deadly suicide attack near the Afghan border that killed seven Pakistani soldiers and injured 13 others, described how fragile the situation is.

Pakistani security officials said militants attacked a military camp in the North Waziristan district, with one assailant crashing an explosive vehicle into a border wall and two others trying to storm the facility before being shot dead.

Six militants were killed in the attack, according to a statement from the office of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Afghanistan's Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, told Ariana News that Kabul instructed its troops to defend the ceasefire as long as Pakistan refrained from any attack.

Hours after the ceasefire, police spokesman Mohammad Ismail Mawia in Paktika province, Afghanistan, said Pakistan launched airstrikes in the districts of Barmal and Urgun.

He did not provide details on the victims.

Sayed Naseem Sadaat, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Kriket Council, said the attack killed eight local cricket players, who were on their way back to Urgun district after competing.

Neither Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense nor Pakistan's military responded to requests for comment regarding the airstrikes.

One Pakistani security official also confirmed the latest airstrike, saying the ceasefire was carried out with the Afghan Taliban, and not with Islamist militants hiding in Afghanistan, which launched an attack on Pakistan.