Christians have appealed for peace after hostilities between Pakistan and Afghanistan escalated into what Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif described as “open war,” following days of cross-border airstrikes and retaliatory attacks.
The escalation effectively ends the mutual security agreement signed in Qatar in October 2025, under which Kabul pledged to eliminate terrorist groups operating on its territory in exchange for Islamabad halting cross-border bombing raids.
Pakistani authorities say the breakdown stems from Kabul’s refusal to neutralize bases along the border used by militants carrying out attacks inside Pakistan, according to a report by the Vatican’s Fides News Agency.
The renewed fighting began Feb. 22 with a Pakistani airstrike on Afghan soil. In the days that followed, strikes hit Kabul and Kandahar. Afghan forces responded with attacks in Abbottabad and near Islamabad, marking the Emirate’s largest airstrike outside the border area.
At the center of the conflict is the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, known as the “Pakistani Taliban,” which has intensified its violence and terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil.
Islamabad’s military command has deemed dialogue a failure and launched bombing raids on what it calls TTP sanctuaries across the border.
Father Cecil Paul, a Pakistani missionary of the Oblates of the Immaculate Virgin Mary and director of the Oblate Media Center in Pakistan, said rising tensions were also fueled by Pakistan’s accelerated expulsion of more than one million Afghans who had settled in the country since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the late 1970s.
“Millions of Afghan refugees have found refuge in Pakistan in the past, settled here, found work, and integrated into society. However, criminal activities such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, and terrorism have increased among them. Therefore, the Pakistani government has now chosen the path of deportation. The Afghans now harbor hatred and hostility and appear to be resorting to violence in retaliation. Hence the escalation,” Father Cecil Paul told Fides.
He also noted that public opinion in Pakistan appears divided, with some opposing war against Afghanistan while others, particularly in military circles, support a tough response to militant attacks that have killed members of the armed forces and civilians.
Amid the widening conflict, the Christian community reiterated its rejection of violence and war.
“As Christians in Pakistan, we are always committed to peace. We are peace-loving people. We reject all forms of violence, terrorism, and war. We call for peace and ask the faithful to pray for us: We also pray for our enemies, as Jesus teaches us, and we try to bear witness to peace,” Father Cecil Paul told Fides.
