Afghanistan and Pakistan to hold peace talks in Doha after airstrikes kill cricketers

Officials from Afghanistan and Pakistan are reaching Qatar on Saturday to negotiate an end to the border conflict which saw three cricketers killed in the latest escalation.

The neighbours have been embroiled in a deadly conflict for about a week that has left dozens of people dead and hundreds injured. Both claim to be responding to the other side’s aggression.

Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of harbouring militants who conduct attacks inside the country, particularly members of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. Kabul rejects the charge.

The fighting intensified on Friday night after the Pakistani military conducted airstrikes in Afghanistan’s Paktika province.

The strikes targeted hideouts of the Hafiz Gul Bahadur militant group, anonymous officials told the Associated Press, adding that they were retaliation for the suicide bombing of a security forces compound in Mir Ali in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province a day earlier. The raids killed dozens of armed fighters but no civilians, they said.

But Afghan officials said the aerial assaults killed at least 10 civilians, including women, children and three local cricketers. The attacks prompted the national cricket board to boycott an upcoming T20 series with Pakistan and Sri Lanka “as a gesture of respect to the victims".

“I am deeply saddened by the loss of civilian lives in the recent Pakistani aerial strikes on Afghanistan,” Afghan cricket captain Rashid Khan said. “A tragedy that claimed the lives of women, children, and aspiring young cricketers who dreamed of representing their nation on the world stage.”

Mr Khan welcomed the cricket board’s decision to withdraw from the fixtures against Pakistan. “I stand with our people at this difficult time,” he added, “our national dignity must come before all else.”

In the wake of the latest clashes, regional powers, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, urged the warring nations to exercise restraint and hold dialogue to lower tensions.

By Saturday afternoon, the two sides were working to defuse the deadliest crisis in years.

Pakistani negotiators had already reached Doha while an Afghan delegation was set to arrive in the Qatari capital later in the day.

The two countries share a 2,611km border, demarcated by the Durand Line, drawn in during the British colonial rule of the subcontinent but not recognised by Afghanistan.

Government spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said that Afghanistan was sending the defence minister and the national intelligence agency’s chief for the talks in the Gulf.

It was not immediately clear who was representing Pakistan.