China ready to continue efforts to ease Pak-Afghan tensions, says ‘most urgent task’ to avoid escalation

BEIJING/PESHAWAR: China on Monday reiterated its offer to continue efforts to ease ongoing border tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“The most urgent task is to avoid the expansion of the war and return the two countries to the negotiating table as soon as possible,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.

“China is willing to continue to make efforts to achieve reconciliation and ease relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” he said, adding that Beijing has been mediating between both sides in recent days.

The remarks come days after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Afghan counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi in a phone call that disputes between Islamabad and Kabul should be resolved through dialogue and consultation, not force.

There has been a resurgence in terrorism in Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021.

Islamabad has repeatedly urged the Taliban administration to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries on Afghan soil, particularly those linked to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Officials say those appeals have gone unheeded.

On the night of February 26, the government said Pakistan’s security forces launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq following unprovoked firing by the Afghan Taliban from across the border.

As that operation continues, armed forces have destroyed Afghan Taliban posts across the Pak-Afghan border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur sector, security sources said on Monday.

Security sources said that in the operation against the Afghan Taliban and the TTP, armed forces also targeted Afghan Taliban posts with “guided missiles”.

Security sources vowed that Operation Ghazab lil-Haq will continue until all objectives are met.

On Sunday morning, security sources said that armed forces carried out overnight strikes in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, destroying “technical support infrastructure and an equipment storage facility”.

Later in the day, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said that four civilians were killed and a child was injured after the Afghan Taliban “deliberately targeted the civilian population through artillery/mortar fire from across the border” in KP’s Bajaur district.

2 killed in Bannu; attack on police post foiled

Separately, at least two individuals in separate suspected militant-related incidents were abducted and later killed in KP’s Bannu district, sources said.

In the first incident, which occurred in Bannu’s Domel tehsil, armed men abducted a well-known figure identified as Malik Nabiullah along with three other people, who were later released.

However, Nabiullah was taken to an unknown location and shot dead. His body was later recovered from the area, sources said.

Meanwhile, in Bannu’s Bakakhel area near the Tochi Bridge, unknown armed men abducted a young man, identified as Shazeb Khan, from his village late on Sunday. He was later killed, with his body left along the roadside.

Investigation was underway in both cases, according to sources.

Elsewhere in Bannu, a suspected militant attack on the Fatah Khel police post was thwarted, police sources said.

According to police sources, officers detected suspicious movement via thermal cameras, after which they immediately opened fire. The militants fled the scene following the retaliatory firing.

Police officials stated that the vigilance and timely response of the personnel prevented a potentially major attack.

The Bannu district has been the scene of repeated security incidents in recent months, with both civilians and local security actors coming under attack, prompting targeted operations.

On Friday, one attacker was killed while a police constable was injured after terrorists attacked a checkpost guarding a camp of the internally displaced persons in Bannu’s Bakakhel area.

Last month, militants raided a mosque and abducted three brothers, two of whom were police personnel and were later killed.