Afghanistan and Pakistan in 'open war'? | Global News Podcast

Hello and welcome to the global news. podcast on the BBC where we look behind. the headlines to focus on one story and. why it matters. Today we are looking at. the surge in violence between the. Taliban government in Afghanistan and. Pakistan who have declared a state of. open war. Well joining us now is our. South Asia and Afghanistan correspondent. Yoga Talmay. Yoga, great to have you. with us. First of all, bring us up to. date. What is the latest in this round. of fighting?

>> So on Friday morning, we woke up to the. news that Pakistan had launched air. strikes in multiple locations in. Afghanistan including the capital Kbal. Uh we spoke to residents in Kbell who. talked about being woken up abruptly. from their sleep uh hearing the sound of. loud explosions uh their homes shaking. and when they went out into the street. they heard jets flying overhead. And the. Pakistani government uh since confirmed. that uh it had launched air strikes uh. in multiple places in Afghanistan. So.

Carbell city uh the provinces of Paktia. in the east and the province of Kandahar. which is the stronghold and the. birthplace of the Taliban government. Now this what this followed was a night. of hectic crossber strikes between the. two sides. Uh and late on Thursday. night, Afghanistan's Taliban government. had actually said they had launched. crossborder operations uh targeted at. Pakistani military positions close to. the border. They claimed they had. captured some of those posts and they. had also captured and killed uh some.

Pakistani soldiers. This is a claim that. Islamabad denies. But this is the latest. serious escalation after months of. hostilities between the two sides. And I. think uh the you know when you ask the. question of who started the aggression I. think the answer will change depending. on which side you ask. >> Yoga Pakistan has for decades maintained. this strategic relationship with the. Taliban in Afghanistan. It suited them. for a range of issues.

How has it now come to this? Why are. they fighting each other now? It's a. really interesting turn of events. because five years ago in 2021 when the. Taliban took over uh Afghanistan. um after the the US withdrawal and. foreign forces withdrew from the country. uh and the collapse of the former Afghan. government. Uh Pakistan was their. closest ally. Most of the Taliban's. leadership have at some point or the. other been based in Pakistan. when you.

speak to them on the ground a lot of. them speak in Uru uh you know the. language that is spoken in Pakistan uh. and so it is really interesting that. these very close ties have now turned in. such a way that today uh you know one. side Pakistan's defense minister really. saying they're in an open war with. Afghanistan uh I think what's happened. over the past couple of years is that. Pakistan has increasingly seen a spate. of attacks uh it says carried out by. Taliban Pakistan or the Pakistani.

Taliban or the TTP. Uh and what Pakistan. has subsequently been saying over the. past one year is that it has conclusive. evidence that the TTP um uh their. handlers, their leadership are based in. Afghanistan and that Afghanistan's. Taliban government is supporting these. militants uh as they carry out these. attacks in Pakistan. So that is the. point of contention. Afghanistan's. Taliban government of course says that. uh it's got nothing to do with these.

attacks that its territory is not being. used to target the security of any. foreign country and that Pakistan's. attacks against Afghanistan are. unprovoked. >> yoga is the name of that group a. coincidence what's their actual. relationship with the Taliban in. Afghanistan. >> I think that's really hard to say at the. moment when you speak to uh you know the. Afghan Taliban which is now the Taliban. government in Afghanistan. Uh you they. will never openly admit that there are.

ties uh to to the Taliban that operates. or the Pakistani Taliban or the TTP as. it's called. And right now on the record. they are saying that they don't actually. have anything to do with the the DTP or. its uh strikes within Pakistan. The. problem with reporting on this ongoing. violence or hostilities, whatever you. might call it, is is what we don't know. And there is a lot that we don't know. simply because it is Afghanistan is not.

an easy country to access under the. Taliban. Uh you know there's lots of. restrictions on journalists uh and. especially the border areas. It's always. really difficult to get accurate and. verified information from there about. what has happened on the ground uh and. about potential ties you know between uh. the Afghanistan Taliban government and. and militant groups that might be. operating in in Pakistan. But it's also. difficult from the Pakistani side. because the Pakistan government doesn't. make it easy to go close to the border. areas. It's hard for our colleagues who.

are based there to actually have any. independent verification of what might. be going on there. >> You spoke a bit about TTP, the Pakistani. Taliban. That's obviously one militant. group, albeit a very prominent one. that's very often in the headlines. Uh. reports that al-Qaeda are on the rise in. Afghanistan. And when the Taliban took. over in 2021, there were large concerns. and fears that the country would once. again become an unfettered haven for. militants and terror groups. You have. managed to report from Afghanistan.

recently. Tell us what did you find when. you visited the country. What is the. situation there these days? you know, have questioned Taliban, the Taliban. spokesman several times about this over. the past uh four and a half years about. what their connection to al-Qaeda is. about these reports that you know that. that there might this might be a safe. haven again for al-Qaeda and whether. they were providing that and again on. the record they have said there are no. links to al-Qaeda uh that they've if. there were any ties between them they've.

severed those ties that's what they say. on the record they also talk about ISKP. or Islamic state Corusan province which. is the regional affiliate of Islamic. State uh which had well it's claimed. attacks in Pakistan but it's also. claimed lots of attacks uh in. Afghanistan as well uh through the years. and so uh again you know when you bring. up the topic of ISKP with with the. Afghan Taliban uh on the record they say. no we've destroyed them we've acted. against them we've got strong security.

we've destroyed all of their hideouts. when the reality is that you know on the. ground when you're in particularly I. would say the eastern provinces of. Nangar of Kunar uh you know Taliban on. the ground will admit that there are. areas where they believe that is ISKP is. is operational uh so I I wouldn't say. you know that you're never going to find. the evidence to definitively say they do. or do not exist but these are the. indicators that we have on the ground.

>> Pakistan has made this announcement that. it is now in a state of open war with. Afghanistan and it dismissed the. Taliban's recent strikes as in as drone. strikes. It downplayed sort of the. sophistication of the Taliban response. What is the status of the Taliban's. armed forces now? What is their military. capability? >> Pakistan is ahead on military might by a. long mile. They have hundreds of tanks. They have hundreds of uh aircraft. They've got very sophisticated defense.

equipment. uh the the Taliban government. in Pakistan, you know, of course, it's. very secretive about what what it has in. terms of military capabilities. Uh you. know, we've asked for many years to have. access to, you know, anything really as. far as when when they're ensuring. security of their concern and we've. never been given that access. We do know. that they have military equipment uh. which was left behind by the former. Afghan and foreign forces. Uh so you. know there is kind of there is artillery.

equipment there are there are tanks. there are there are helicopters. certainly because we have seen those. actually being used but you know as far. as we know they do not have the planes. or or the capability to launch air. strikes. However now in this standoff. they have said and Pakistan has also. confirmed that there have been drone. strikes. Uh and of course we've seen all. over the world that the usage of drones. drones are cheap. uh there you know it's. easy to train people on how to use them. uh and they have altered battlegrounds.

all over the world. So undoubtedly. uh it will alter you know how this. standoff how these tensions how these. hostilities play out in the future as. well. >> And yogurt what has the reaction been in. the region and and the the wider. continent? So I think we have seen uh. you know offers to mediate. So even in. October 2025 when we saw this uh. escalate uh there were countries that. came in to mediate uh notably Qatar and.

Turkey. Uh there were talks that were. held in DHA in Istanbul. And while uh. you know both sides agreed to a fragile. ceasefire which has obviously been. broken now uh there was never any sort. of consolidated broader agreement. I. don't think either side necessarily. wants a protracted war or that is what. at least they're saying. Uh but I guess. the question is you know are both sides. being honest about what it is that this. this standoff is really about. So on the. face of it, of course, you know,

Pakistan saying there are these militant. groups. Uh the Taliban government. refusing to acknowledge that these. groups are there and that they're. actually helping them and so they're not. actively doing anything to prevent them. from from launching attacks in Pakistan. and that's what's happening on the face. of it. But you know I can tell you with. my experience in you know covering. covering Afghanistan particularly that. it's not um you never know sort of what. is happening and you know why what is. the real reason for these hostilities.

and so I think until they get to that. until they say that openly and clearly. of what they want uh it's really hard to. see any kind of mediation resulting in. anything but a temporary ceasefire. Thank you, Yogata. Yogurt Lemi, our. South Asia and Afghanistan. correspondent. That's all from us on the Global News. podcast here on YouTube. If you enjoyed. this episode, please do subscribe. If. there is a story you would like us to. cover, please do leave a comment here. below. Don't forget, you can always stay.

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