Second round of Pak-Afghan talks begins in Istanbul
ISTANBUL: A second round of talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan kicked off in Istanbul on Saturday, with Islamabad eyeing a “concrete” mechanism to monitor Afghan Taliban actions aimed at preventing cross-border terrorist attacks.
Saturday’s meeting follows the first round of Pakistan-Afghanistan talks mediated jointly by Qatar and Turkiye in Doha on October 18-19.
The Qatar talks had come after days of fighting along the Pak-Afghan border — where trade is still closed — and strikes by Islamabad on Gul Bahadur group camps in Afghanistan. The agreement reached in Doha extended an initial 48-hour truce and resulted in a permanent ceasefire, as well as a commitment to reconvene in Istanbul to work on mechanisms for lasting peace and stability between the two countries.
According to Afghan interim administration spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, the Afghan delegation was to be led by Mawlawi Rahmatullah Najeeb, deputy minister at Ministry of Interior, Turkish news agency Anadolu reported.
“The remaining issues [with Pakistan] will be discussed in the meeting,” Mujahid said in a post on X last night, adding that the Afghan delegation had left Kabul for Istanbul.
“Pakistan looks forward to the establishment of a concrete and verifiable monitoring mechanism in the next meeting to be hosted by Turkiye in Istanbul on Oct 25, 2025, to address the menace of terrorism emanating from Afghan soil towards Pakistan and prevent any further loss of life of Pakistanis,” the new Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson, Tahir Hussain Andrabi, said at his maiden weekly media briefing on Friday.
The Istanbul round offers an opportunity to move from temporary calm towards a structured, verifiable peace framework with mechanisms for monitoring, verification and sustained dialogue through technical committees.
Turkish officials have indicated that a technical committee in Istanbul will review details of the ceasefire, including terrorism, migration and border security.
At the talks on Saturday, Pakistan is expected to seek concrete and verifiable commitments from the Afghan side to eliminate the threat of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) from its territory, which Pakistan says uses Afghan soil to launch attacks across the border.
The agenda includes dismantling known TTP sanctuaries, arresting or expelling key figures and defining clear timelines and benchmarks for measurable action such as raids, arrests and destruction of safe houses. Monitoring Desk
