Longstanding border clashes between Afghanistan’s governing Taliban forces and the Pakistani army escalated sharply Feb. 27, with Islamabad ordering airstrikes on Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, and other areas. The conflict has had a devastating impact on working people, with hundreds dead and more than 100,000 forced to flee their homes.
The Taliban had launched drone attacks on Pakistani military bases in several border provinces hours before Islamabad retaliated.
The Taliban is a reactionary Sunni Islamist group whose origins lie in one of the U.S.-backed mujahideen rebel forces battling and ultimately defeating Moscow during its war in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. In the early 1990s, the Taliban took control of Kabul and held power from 1996, providing a safe haven for al-Qaeda.
After al-Qaeda’s Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, Washington invaded and overthrew the Taliban regime. This led to a 20-year war, involving over 100,000 U.S. troops under four U.S. presidents, which Washington lost. The Taliban returned to power in 2021. During the war, ties between the Taliban and the rulers in Pakistan deepened.
Today the Taliban has allied with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which carries out terrorist attacks against the regime in Islamabad inside Pakistan. The governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan signed a ceasefire last October, brokered by the rulers of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. But multiple rounds of talks have failed to produce an agreement.
Islamabad says the Afghan government must cease all support for the TTP, while the Taliban says Pakistani forces must stop deadly incursions into Afghanistan that target the group’s bases. TTP leader Mufti Noor Waki Mehsud has urged its forces to retaliate against Pakistan’s “invasion” of Afghanistan.
During the war against Moscow’s forces in Afghanistan, the Pakistani government backed the mujahideen fighters. This alliance continued when the Taliban came to power, with Islamabad providing a safe haven for Taliban fighters after Washington intervened and its long war in Afghanistan began.
Islamabad welcomed the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. But since then the TTP has stepped up its terror assaults inside Pakistan, killing some 1,300 people. This and old territorial disputes have increasingly set the governments in Pakistan and Afghanistan against each other.
Since last October, all trade between the two countries has been shut down, with a devastating impact on working people, especially in border villages in Afghanistan. Access to medicine and food is restricted. Islamabad says it will only restore trade ties if the Afghanistan government clamps down on the TTP.
Like the rulers in Iran, who are deporting Afghan immigrants, the Pakistani government launched a mass deportation program targeting the 4 million Afghanis living there, under the banner of “combating terrorism.” Since 2023 more than 1 million Afghans have been expelled from Pakistan.
Rivalry between Beijing, New Delhi
The fighting is interconnected with broader conflicts in the region, as the capitalist rulers in China and India jockey to extend their sway.
The Pakistani government is partnered with Beijing in its Belt and Road project. It has become dependent on the Chinese rulers for the development of ports and other transport infrastructure that connect Pakistan to trade routes with Beijing.
Beijing has also sought relations with the Taliban, incorporating Afghanistan’s government into Belt and Road projects last year. The Chinese rulers have an eye on exploiting the country’s copper and other resources.
As a result, Beijing hasn’t taken sides in the war and urges both governments to negotiate.
As tensions between the Pakistani rulers and the Taliban worsened, the Afghan government deepened its relations with the rulers in India.
India’s foreign ministry condemned Pakistani airstrikes on Kabul. Nuclear-armed rivals, Islamabad and New Delhi fought a four-day war over control of Kashmir last year. For its part, Washington said it “supports Pakistan’s right to defend itself against attacks from the Taliban” Feb. 27.
The clash between Afghanistan and Pakistan is one more conflict shaking the U.S.-dominated world order, as the imperialist rulers continue their march toward a third world war.