Pakistan, Afghanistan extend ceasefire, set up monitoring

After four days of tense negotiations in Istanbul this week, Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to extend a ceasefire and to establish a monitoring and verification mechanism to keep fighting along their shared border from resuming, mediators and officials said. The agreement follows a Doha-brokered truce on October 19 and comes after some of the deadliest crossborder clashes between the neighbours in years.

The latest Istanbul talks, mediated by Turkey and Qatar, nearly collapsed midweek after Islamabad and Kabul clashed over the central issue of Pakistan’s demand that Afghanistan take verifiable action against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Pakistani officials said the Afghan delegation repeatedly agreed in closed sessions to Islamabad’s demand but then shifted position under instructions from Kabul. Afghan representatives have argued they do not control all nonstate actors inside Afghanistan and resisted unconditional commitments to act.

Pakistan’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said Islamabad had presented what it called “sufficient and irrefutable evidence” of militant activity based in Afghanistan but that Kabul gave no firm assurances. Pakistan’s defence...