Pakistan & Afghan Taliban resume peace talks in China

Pakistan and Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have resumed peace talks in China, officials told Associated Press on Wednesday.

Pakistani and Taliban's representatives held talks in northern China's Urumqi, officials told AP.

A source told the news agency that Chinese mediation is aimed at ending the current fighting.

None of the governments involved have so far announced such talks.

China is mediating between Pakistan and Afghan Taliban, who have been engaged in cyclic cross-border conflict since last year. Hundreds of people have been killed and several thousands have been displaced in the fighting.

In the deadliest act in the war so far, Pakistan last month struck a rehabilitation centre in Kabul and killed hundreds of people — the Taliban said the death toll was around 400. Pakistan said that it had struck an ammunition depot.

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Last year, years of brewing tensions between Pakistan and Taliban exploded into overt fighting. While Pakistan had been conducted strikes inside Afghanistaan since 2024 over the Taliban's suspected support to Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), it escalated the campaign in October when it struck Kabul. The Taliban retaliated with attacks across the disputed Pakistan-Afghanistan border and clashes continued for several days.

The TTP is an armed group distinct from the Afghan Taliban. Pakistan has labelled the TTP as a terrorist organisation and accuses the Afghan Taliban of providing it a safe haven in their country to pursue its anti-Pakistan agenda.

Even as international mediation led to a brief truce, the arrangement broke down and the two sides kept clashing frequently. Pakistan and Taliban have previously held talks in Qatar and Turkey when respective governments intervened. But a lasting peace deal eluded these interventions.

In February, Pakistan declared "open war" against the Taliban and ramped up the offensive. As the offensive was launched almost at the same time when the United States and Israel launched the war on Iran, Pakistan has pursued the campaign against Taliban and TTP with little international attention.