After a week of conflict along their borders, Pakistan and Afghanistan reached a ceasefire agreement on Sunday following a meeting in Doha. Qatar’s foreign ministry mediated the talks, and it released a statement saying Islamabad and Kabul both “agreed to an immediate ceasefire and the establishment of mechanisms to consolidate lasting peace and stability,” hopefully putting an end to the worst spurt of violence the region has seen since 2021, when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan. In a post on X, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif confirmed that the ceasefire had been finalized, but he added that both sides would meet again on October 25 in Istanbul to discuss further “detailed matters.”

The talks came days after Islamabad and Kabul agreed to a ceasefire on Wednesday and then extended it on Friday. However, conflict continued despite those agreements as Pakistan carried out an airstrike hours later, targeting Afghanistan’s Paktika province. One anonymous hospital official told the AFP news agency that ten civilians died in the attack, and a senior Afghan official promised retaliation while accusing Pakistan of breaking the truce. Despite the continuing strikes, the Taliban’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, later announced that negotiations would take place in Doha, resulting in the current ceasefire.

Conflict began when Pakistan conducted military strikes on the border against the Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group, a faction with ties to the Pakistan Taliban (TTP). The TTP is a militant organization that seeks to take over Islamabad and implement stricter Islamic policies throughout the nation, and it has carried out multiple attacks against the Pakistani government. Pakistan has accused Afghanistan of harboring TTP militants on its borders, which the Taliban has continually denied. Pakistan Taliban is independent of the Taliban in Kabul, but they are ideologically aligned, and TTP attacks have increased since the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021. Their attacks, leading up to Pakistan’s retaliation, killed several Pakistani soldiers.

Mujahid said that “it was decided that neither country will take hostile actions against the other, and support will not be provided to groups operating against the government of Pakistan” at the Doha talks. On X, he also followed up, saying that the Taliban is committed to never allowing Afghanistan’s territory to be used against another country. If the upcoming talks create any further agreement between Islamabad and Kabul about the Pakistan Taliban, it would reflect a great success for negotiations mediated by third–and even fourth–countries. Qatar has played an especially large role in recent mediations with the Taliban, the United States, Israel, Hamas, and more. However, it may be too early to judge the success of this most recent agreement since it currently lacks a long-term solution to Pakistan’s primary concerns about the TTP. Regardless, a ceasefire is a step in the right direction for peace, giving a moment’s peace at least to those affected by the conflict.