PAKISTAN and Afghanistan traded attacks in a dramatic escalation of tensions between the countries that Pakistan’s defence minister said on Friday means they are now in “open war.”

Tensions have been high between the neighbours for months, with border clashes in October killing dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants.

Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harbouring militant groups that then stage attacks across the border and also of allying with its arch-rival India.

A Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the fighting, although the two sides still occasionally exchanged fire. Several rounds of peace talks in Istanbul in November failed to produce a formal agreement.

Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack on Pakistan late on Thursday, saying it was in retaliation for deadly Pakistani air strikes on Afghan border areas on Sunday.

Pakistan then carried out its own air strikes in Kabul and two other Afghan provinces early on Friday.

After Friday’s attacks, Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif said in an X post that Pakistan had hoped for peace in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of Nato forces in 2021 and expected the Taliban, which seized power in the country, to focus on the welfare of the Afghan people and regional stability.

Instead, he said that the Taliban had turned Afghanistan “into a colony of India,” with which Pakistan has periodically engaged in wars, clashes and skirmishes since gaining independence from British colonial rule in 1947.

India has had improved ties with Afghanistan recently, offering to enhance bilateral trade, to the annoyance of Islamabad.

“Our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us,” Mr Asif said. There was no immediate reaction from Afghan officials.

Afghan authorities in the eastern Nangarhar province said that fighting was ongoing in the Torkham border area on Friday morning.

The province’s information directorate said that Pakistani mortar fire hit civilian areas in Torkham, including a refugee camp, which had been evacuated overnight. In response, Afghanistan was targeting Pakistani army posts across the border, it said.

Islamabad frequently accuses Afghanistan of supporting the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and outlawed Baloch separatist groups.

Pakistan has also accused neighbouring India of backing the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army and the TTP, allegations New Delhi denies.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres urged both sides “to continue to seek to resolve any differences through diplomacy,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

Russian diplomat Zamir Kabulov, who is President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for Afghanistan, said that Moscow would consider mediating between the two countries if asked, according to Ria Novosti.