00:00Are Pakistan and Afghanistan on the brink of all-out war?
00:04What's the background to this conflict?
00:06This is an intensification of long-simmering historical security concerns along their shared
00:12border, said Rabia Akhtar on the conversation.
00:14When the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan in 2021, Pakistan hoped that it would help
00:20rein in those militant groups.
00:22After all, Pakistan had covertly supported the Taliban for the 20 years it was out of
00:26power.
00:27That hope was a strategic miscalculation, said the New York Times.
00:31Since the Taliban retook power, militant attacks within Pakistan have actually increased, particularly
00:37by the Tariq-e-Taliban Pakistan, TTP, or Pakistan Taliban.
00:42The group took advantage of Pakistan's political chaos to entrench its power in the borderlands.
00:47The TTP also took some of America's military equipment that it left when it withdrew from
00:52Afghanistan.
00:52Over the past four years, the TTP has killed 4,000 people in attacks within Pakistan, according
00:59to Pakistani authorities.
01:01Islamabad launched airstrikes against these alleged TTP hideouts last year, warning that
01:06it would no longer tolerate safe havens for fighters.
01:09It also suspended trade with landlocked Afghanistan, putting more pressure on its economy.
01:14Pakistan and Iran have also been forcibly repatriating Afghan refugees.
01:19An estimated 2.7 million were returned to Afghanistan last year, straining Afghanistan's public services
01:25even more and causing chaos at the border.
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