Pakistan and Afghan Taliban meet in China for ceasefire talks

Pakistan and Afghanistan held the first round of peace talks on Wednesday, with China mediating to broker a durable ceasefire after weeks of fighting, two Pakistani officials said.

But even as the talks were held, Afghanistan accused Pakistan of firing mortars into its territory.

Representatives from the two countries were meeting in Urumqi, in northern China, the officials told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. The first round of talks concluded on Wednesday afternoon and were expected to continue on Thursday, they said.

China has not commented. Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs neither confirmed nor denied the talks were taking place.

An Afghan official said the five-member Afghan delegation in Urumqi consisted of two officials from the foreign ministry and one each from the defense and interior ministries and from the country's intelligence agency. The official provided the information on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details to the press.

The talks in Urumqi are seen as a potential relief for millions of people in Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, the sources in Pakistan said, adding they may last for days and were only the beginning of a peace process between the two sides.

Farid Dehqan, a police spokesman for the eastern Afghan province of Kunar, said Pakistan had fired mortars into Afghan territory late Wednesday, killing two civilians and wounding six others, including four children. He said the shelling was ongoing two hours after it started.

The Pakistani army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

'Verification mechanism'

According to the sources, the latest round of talks began after both sides accepted China's offer to mediate to end the fighting. The two sides will continue their talks on Thursday.

China has urged both sides to resume dialogue since late February, and its special envoy, Yue Xiaoyong, met his Pakistani counterpart, Mohammad Sadiq, last month after visiting Kabul.

Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of providing a safe haven for militants who carry out attacks inside Pakistan, especially for the Pakistani Taliban. The group is separate but allied with the Afghan Taliban, which took over Afghanistan in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led troops. Kabul denies the charge.

Pakistan's former special envoy for Afghanistan, Asif Durrani, expressed hope that the talks, if officially confirmed, would lead to substantive progress.

"If both sides reach an agreement as a result of reported talks, the critical issue will be a verification mechanism to ensure Afghan territory is not used for attacks against Pakistan," he said.

The fighting since February has been the most severe between Afghanistan and Pakistan in decades. Shortly after clashes began, Pakistan declared it was in "open war" with Afghanistan, with repeated cross-border clashes as well as airstrikes inside Afghanistan, including several in the Afghan capital Kabul.

Afghanistan said a Pakistani airstrike last month hit a drug-treatment center in Kabul, killing more than 400 people. The death toll could not be independently confirmed. Pakistan has disputed the claim and denied targeting civilians, saying it struck an ammunition depot.

Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told the AP at the time that Pakistan had "only targeted terrorist infrastructure" in Kabul, not any hospital, saying: "We have just gone after the Afghan Taliban regime, their military setups, their terrorist infrastructure, and all the setups which are supporting or promoting terrorists."

Qatari-mediated ceasefire

Although the two sides agreed to a temporary truce during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, fighting later resumed at a lower intensity compared with the heavy clashes seen in February and March, when Pakistan's air force repeatedly targeted what it said were Pakistani Taliban positions and Afghan military sites. Afghanistan has said the airstrikes hit civilian areas.

The two sides have a long history of tense relations, but the recent violence has alarmed the international community, particularly because militant groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, remain present in the region and have sought to regroup.

The latest fighting also undermined a Qatari-mediated ceasefire reached in October, which had halted earlier clashes that killed dozens of civilians, security personnel and militants. The two sides dispute casualty figures. Another recent round of talks in Saudi Arabia remained inconclusive.

Previous peace talks held in Istanbul in November failed to produce a lasting agreement.

It remains unclear who is representing Pakistan and Afghanistan in the latest round of talks in China, according to the officials.