By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has offered to help re-establish a ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan, as security forces inflicted heavy losses on Afghan Taliban positions in a sustained cross-border campaign, officials said on Tuesday.
The pledge came during a telephone conversation on Tuesday between Erdogan and Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif. In a statement issued by the Turkish presidency, Erdogan said Ankara would “contribute to the re-establishment of the ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan”, reviving the mediation role Turkey played last year alongside Qatar. “Condemning the terror attacks carried out in Pakistan, President Erdogan said Turkiye will continue to stand by Pakistan in its anti-terror fight, and that it will contribute to the re-establishment of the ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan, reached through Turkiye’s initiatives as well,” the presidency said.
Erdogan also stressed that renewed diplomacy in the region would be “extremely beneficial” and that Turkey stood ready to provide all possible support. Sharif, in his own readout of the call, said the two leaders had discussed the “escalating situation in the Middle East”. He condemned Israel’s attack on Iran and subsequent strikes on Gulf countries, briefed Erdogan on his outreach to Gulf leaders, and reaffirmed Pakistan’s solidarity with them and its willingness to help promote de-escalation and dialogue.
Both sides agreed that “maximum restraint by all parties is imperative to prevent further escalation”. They also exchanged views on recent developments in Afghanistan and resolved to remain in “close and frequent contact” in their shared pursuit of regional peace and stability, Sharif said. Radio Pakistan reported that the prime minister had taken Erdogan into confidence on the situation along the border.
The Turkish offer comes as relations between Islamabad and the Taliban administration in Kabul have deteriorated to their lowest point since the group returned to power in 2021. Last October, border clashes along the 2,600km frontier led to three rounds of Turkish- and Qatari-mediated talks in Doha. The first produced a fragile ceasefire; the second ended with only a general agreement to develop a verification mechanism; the third concluded without any concrete deal.
The current escalation began on 22 February when Pakistan targeted suspected terrorist camps and hideouts in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar and Paktika provinces. The Taliban responded with what Pakistan described as unprovoked attacks along the border. On 26 February, Islamabad launched Operation Ghazab lil Haq, a campaign of ground and air strikes against what it calls militant infrastructure on Afghan soil.
On Tuesday, information minister Attaullah Tarar said the “Operation Ghazb lil Haq” had so far caused 464 Taliban fatalities and more than 665 injuries. In a post on X, Tarar reported that 188 Taliban checkposts had been destroyed and 31 captured, while 192 tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery pieces were put out of action. Air strikes hit 56 locations inside Afghanistan,.
The claims came as Pakistani forces repelled what officials described as coordinated, large-scale Taliban attacks overnight across Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. Tarar said at least 67 Taliban fighters were killed in the clashes, with one Pakistani soldier from the Frontier Corps killed and five others wounded.
The minister detailed the assaults in a series of social media updates. In northern Balochistan, he said, the Taliban launched physical attacks on 16 locations in the districts of Qilla Saifullah, Noshki and Chaman while engaging Pakistani troops in fire raids at 25 others. “The attack at all the locations have been effectively repulsed with Afghan Taliban suffering 27 killed and scores injured,” Tarar wrote. “One soldier of FC Balochistan North gave the ultimate sacrifice while defending the motherland while five soldiers are injured.”
Similar attempts were made in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where one physical attack and fire raids on 12 positions were all beaten back without Pakistani casualties, he said. Another 40 Taliban fighters were reported killed in that province. Pakistan has long accused the Taliban-led government in Kabul of sheltering anti-Pakistan militant groups, including the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), and of allowing them to stage cross-border raids. Officials say Islamabad has repeatedly raised the issue with Afghan authorities, only to be met with denials. The Taliban have consistently rejected the charges, insisting they do not support attacks on Pakistani soil.
Tarar framed the latest violence as “unprovoked aggression” by the Taliban in support of those militant entities. Pakistani forces responded by targeting what they called hostile positions on the Afghan side of the border. A senior security official said the operation had extended into Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province. Pakistani ground and air strikes destroyed an ammunition depot and a drone storage facility near Jalalabad and hit the Khogani base. The campaign would continue “until its objectives were achieved”, the official added.
The fighting underscores the fragile state of relations between the two neighbours since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021. Islamabad has grown increasingly frustrated by what it sees as Kabul’s failure – or unwillingness – to curb TTP activity, which has surged in Pakistan’s tribal border regions. The TTP and BLA have both claimed responsibility for numerous attacks inside Pakistan in recent years.
Tarar said Pakistani response is measured yet decisive. “Afghan Taliban resorted to physical attack on 16 locations in Northern Balochistan … while engaging our troops on 25 locations in fire raid,” he wrote. All such attempts had been repelled.
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