Pakistan partially reopens Torkham Border for refugee return amid fragile ceasefire
Next round of negotiations is scheduled for November the 6th.
Pakistan partially reopened the Torkham border crossing on Saturday to allow thousands of stranded Afghan refugees to return home, although restrictions on trade movement remain, according to the Associated Press. This move follows an agreement to maintain a temporary ceasefire between the two countries after their deadliest border clashes since 2021. The truce, which was brokered by Turkey and Qatar, was extended following talks in Istanbul, with a follow-up negotiation round scheduled for November 6 to finalize mechanisms for maintaining peace. Despite the diplomatic effort, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry stressed that the ceasefire is contingent upon Kabul’s assurances to act decisively against militants, particularly the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), operating from Afghan soil. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s security crackdown on Afghan refugees has continued, with nearly 40,000 Afghan nationals having left Balochistan’s capital, Quetta, alone since the expulsion campaign began in late 2023.
The ongoing tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan is primarily a security crisis rooted in the resurgence of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group ideologically aligned with the ruling Afghan Taliban but focused on attacking the Pakistani state. Since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Kabul in August 2021, the TTP has been emboldened, allegedly using Afghan soil as a secure base to launch a dramatic increase in deadly cross-border attacks into Pakistan. This security threat culminated in the most serious military clashes since 2021, involving Pakistani airstrikes and Afghan retaliation in October 2025, which led Pakistan to close the vital Torkham border crossing. The closure, which halted all trade and travel, left thousands of Afghan refugees stranded as they were already attempting to leave Pakistan due to Islamabad’s major campaign to repatriate all ‘undocumented foreigners’. The current partial reopening of the border is a result of recent ceasefire talks mediated by Qatar and Turkey, but its permanence is fragile and dependent on, as insisted by Pakistan, Kabul finally agreeing to Pakistan’s demands for decisive action against the TTP. The Taliban regime on the other hand has maintained TTP to be Pakistan’s ‘internal problem’.