Islamabad and Kabul have reached an agreement on a temporary 48-hour ceasefire, which will take effect from 6:00 p.m. Pakistan time (4:00 p.m. Bulgarian time) on Wednesday, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry announced. The decision comes after an escalation of tensions and armed clashes between the two countries in the past week, reports "Reuters".
"Both Pakistan and Afghanistan will make sincere efforts through dialogue to find a positive solution to the complex but solvable issue," said the official statement from Islamabad.
In the past week, the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan became the scene of heavy gunfire and artillery shelling after Pakistani forces accused the Taliban of supporting militants from the "Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan" (TTP) movement, which carried out attacks on Pakistani territory.
On October 10, a blast at a checkpoint near Chaman killed several Pakistani border guards. In the following days, Islamabad closed the Torkham border crossing, a major trade corridor, and Pakistani forces carried out strikes on TTP militant targets in Afghan territory.
For its part, the Taliban government in Kabul accused Pakistan of "violating Afghanistan's sovereignty" and warned that it would respond to further attacks.