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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif announced on Sunday that Islamabad had reached a ceasefire agreement with Kabul in Doha, after days of fierce clashes between the two sides left dozens dead and increased tensions between the neighbors. 

Asif was leading a Pakistani delegation in Doha on Saturday for talks with Afghanistan after days of fierce battles between the two countries along their long and porous border, which led to the deaths of dozens of people on both sides. Pakistan also carried out airstrikes in Kandahar and Kabul before the two sides reached an uneasy truce that opened the window for bilateral talks arranged by Qatar.

Pakistan has long accused Afghanistan of sheltering militant groups like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and facilitating their attacks against its civilians and security forces. Kabul denies the allegation, though it has become a key sticking point between the two countries and has led more serious skirmishes than ever before.

“A ceasefire agreement has been reached between Pakistan and Afghanistan,” Asif wrote on social media platform X on Sunday. 

“The series of terrorist activities from Afghanistan on Pakistani soil will cease immediately. Both neighboring countries will respect each other’s territory — Alhamdulillah.”

The minister said delegations from Afghanistan and Pakistan will meet again in Istanbul on Oct. 25 in which detailed discussions will take place. Asif thanked Qatar and Turkiye for their mediation efforts. 

The development was also confirmed by Qatar’s foreign ministry in a statement, which said both Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to an “immediate ceasefire” after the Doha talks on Saturday. 

“During the negotiations, the two sides agreed to an immediate ceasefire and the establishment of mechanisms to consolidate lasting peace and stability between the two countries,” it said. 

Tensions rose sharply on Friday when a militant attack on a Pakistani security compound in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan killed at least seven soldiers. The attack elicited airstrikes from the authorities in Islamabad in an Afghan border town against the Hafiz Gul Bahadar group. 

The Afghanistan Cricket Board told AFP that three players who were in the region for a tournament were killed by the airstrikes, revising down an earlier toll of eight.

Afghanistan withdrew from the Twenty20 international tri-series in Pakistan next month in response, following which the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced Zimbabwe would take part in the series in its place. 

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Saturday Pakistan had carried out “precision strikes” in which about 70 militants had been killed.

“All speculations and assertions being made regarding targeting of civilians are false and meant to generate support for terrorist groups operating from inside Afghanistan,” he added.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Saturday it called for the right to self-determination for the people of Palestine Jammu and Kashmir at a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Uganda, urging renewed international attention to unresolved conflicts and rising global tensions.

The 19th mid-term ministerial meeting of NAM, held in Kampala under the theme “Deepening Cooperation for Shared Global Affluence,” brought together representatives from more than 100 member states.

Founded during the Cold War, the 120-member bloc continues to serve as a key platform for developing nations to promote peace, multilateralism and equitable development outside major power alignments.

At the plenary session, Pakistan’s Special Secretary for the United Nations, Nabeel Munir, reaffirmed NAM’s “vital role in promoting peace and development amid global challenges,” citing the long-standing disputes of Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine as tests of international resolve.

“He reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for NAM’s principled stance on the right to self-determination for peoples under foreign occupation and condemned rising Islamophobia and war rhetoric in South Asia,” according to a statement from the Foreign Office.

During the NAM Ministerial Committee on Palestine, Munir welcomed the Sharm el-Sheikh ceasefire agreement in Gaza, praising mediation efforts by Qatar, Egypt, Türkiye, and the United States.

He expressed hope that the truce would lead to full Israeli withdrawal, sustained humanitarian relief and reconstruction in the enclave, reiterating Pakistan’s support for a sovereign Palestinian state along pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

The meeting concluded with the adoption of the Kampala Declaration and a comprehensive outcome document recognizing Pakistan’s contributions to peace and stability in the Middle East, the Foreign Office said.