Af-Pak Conflict Enters Fifth Week as Pakistan Maintains 'Open War' Posture

The Afghanistan-Pakistan conflict continued into its fifth week on April 1, with Pakistani forces conducting air and artillery strikes against Taliban positions in Kabul, Kandahar, Paktia, Nangarhar, Khost, and Paktika provinces under Operation Ghazab-il-Haq. Pakistan maintained its 'open war' declaration, with Pakistani officials claiming hundreds of Taliban fighters had been killed in the sustained campaign. Taliban officials disputed these claims and continued to assert that Pakistani strikes primarily targeted civilian infrastructure, homes, shops, and public facilities. JURIST reported that Pakistan had formally declared the conflict an 'open war', a characterization Afghan Taliban officials rejected as a deliberate framing to delegitimize their state sovereignty. International pressure for de-escalation continued but no new ceasefire framework had materialized by the end of March. US, China, Russia, EU and the UN all urged restraint but none had produced a new mediation breakthrough.