Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban administration agreed to a 48-hour cease-fire starting at 6:00 p.m. local time Wednesday, Islamabad announced, following the outbreak of renewed fighting between the neighbors.
Both Pakistan and Afghanistan will make sincere efforts, through dialogue, to find a positive solution to the complex yet resolvable issue, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The announcement comes after Pakistani security sources said that the country carried out "precision strikes" in Kabul after dozens of troops and civilians were earlier killed in a fresh round of border skirmishes.
"Pakistan carried out precision strikes in Kandahar and Kabul provinces," the security source told AFP, referring to the southern Afghan province that was the birthplace of the Afghan Taliban as well as the area around the capital.
Meanwhile, two explosions were heard in central Kabul on Wednesday evening, AFP journalists said.
Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said an oil tanker and a generator had exploded, sparking fires in the Afghan capital.
Ambulances were moving through the streets, AFP correspondents saw, while Taliban security forces also cordoned off the city center.
Plumes of black smoke could be seen rising into the sky and the ground was littered with shattered glass from buildings damaged by the explosions, AFP journalists said.
Earlier Wednesday, fresh fighting erupted along the tense Pakistan-Afghanistan border, killing more than a dozen civilians and soldiers and shattering a fragile peace following deadly weekend clashes.
The weekend fighting was the worst between the neighbors since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021, despite regular clashes between their security forces along the contested 2,600-kilometer (1,600-mile) frontier.
The Afghan Taliban said more than a dozen of its civilians were killed and 100 wounded as Pakistani forces launched attacks in the early hours of Wednesday in the district of Spin Boldak.
Pakistan said four of its civilians were wounded in attacks by "Taliban forces" in the district of Chaman, which is opposite Spin Boldak across the frontier.
Fighting between troops and militants in a second incident in Pakistan's border district of Orakzai killed six Pakistani paramilitary soldiers and wounded six, two security officials told Reuters.
Nine terrorists were also killed, they said, adding that the violence broke out during a search in the area by troops after a militant attack last week killed 11 Pakistani soldiers.
The Pakistani military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Orakzai clash. But it dismissed as "outrageous and blatant lies" Kabul's accusation that Pakistan had launched the attack in Spin Boldak.
The recent friction between the two former allies erupted after Islamabad demanded that the Afghan Taliban administration tackle militants who have stepped up attacks in Pakistan, saying they operate from havens in Afghanistan.
