Aligned Nations · The wars

Pakistan and Afghanistan

⚔ The aggressor

Pakistan, which struck first

  • Identified by: First strike Where no land is occupied and no authority overthrown, whoever attacked first is the aggressor; fighting is permitted only against those who fight you. Qur'an 2:190

No land was occupied and no authority overthrown when the war began, so the first strike decides. Pakistan opened the war with air strikes deep inside Afghanistan on 21 February 2026, before any Afghan attack on Pakistan, answered Afghanistan's four-hour border retaliation by bombing Kabul and declaring 'open war', and has struck again in every round since — including a Kabul hospital and, on 30 September 2026, homes in Kunar and Helmand where UNAMA counted at least 10 civilians killed, mostly children. Reports that it has fenced off land inside Paktika, if confirmed, would make it an occupier as well.

Their case: Pakistan says its strikes are counter-terrorism against TTP, ISIS–K and Baloch camps that launch attacks into Pakistan — including the Islamabad mosque bombing — and that the Taliban shelter them. The Taliban deny it, and those attacks were by armed groups, not by the Afghan state.

Timeline

  1. The deadliest border clashes in years end in a Qatar- and Turkey-mediated ceasefire in Doha; talks in Doha and Istanbul fail to make it last.
  2. An ISIS–K suicide bombing kills 31 worshippers in Islamabad.
  3. Pakistan launches air strikes on Nangarhar, Paktika and Khost, saying it hit militant camps; Kabul says homes and a seminary were hit.
  4. Afghan forces strike back along the border for four hours; Pakistan strikes Kabul, Kandahar, Paktia and Nangarhar and its defence minister declares 'open war' (Operation Ghazab lil-Haq).
  5. Pakistan strikes Bagram Airfield; fighting at Torkham.
  6. A strike hits Kabul's Omid addiction-treatment hospital; Kabul says over 200 killed, Pakistan denies hitting civilians.
  7. An Eid al-Fitr pause asked for by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey; fighting resumes after it.
  8. BBC Dari reports from satellite images that Pakistan has fenced off 32 sq km inside Paktika.
  9. China hosts talks in Ürümqi; they end without agreement.
  10. Lower-intensity fighting, cross-border shelling and drones.
  11. After attacks inside Pakistan, new Pakistani strikes in eastern Afghanistan.
  12. Strikes on Kunar and Helmand kill at least 10 civilians, mostly children (UNAMA).

Motives

  • PakistanTo stop the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), ISIS–K and Baloch fighters it says attack Pakistan from Afghan soil, and to force Kabul to act against them.
  • Afghanistan (Taliban government)To defend its territory and sovereignty; it denies sheltering the groups Pakistan names.

South and Central Asia · since February 2026 (border clashes since October 2025) · updated 2026-10-12

Deaths: About 900: at least 372 Afghan civilians killed by May 2026 (UNAMA), and hundreds of fighters on both sides by each side's disputed claims (Kabul says over 760 civilians)

Pakistan has bombed Afghanistan since February 2026 — Kabul included — in a war UNAMA says has killed hundreds of Afghan civilians; it flared again in late September after three months of relative calm.

🇦🇫 Afghanistan33%🇵🇰 Pakistanaggressor23%

Summary

After border clashes in October 2025 and a ceasefire that did not hold, Pakistan answered a wave of bombings inside its own territory — among them an ISIS–K attack that killed 31 worshippers in Islamabad — with air strikes on eastern Afghanistan on 21 February 2026. When Afghan forces struck back along the border on 26 February, Pakistan bombed Kabul, Kandahar and other cities, hit Bagram and Jalalabad airfields, and its defence minister declared 'open war'.

UNAMA counted 56 civilians killed in the first ten days and at least 372 killed and 397 wounded in Pakistani strikes by May; Kabul's own counts are higher, and it says a strike on a Kabul addiction-treatment hospital on 16 March killed over 200 patients, which Pakistan denies. UNHCR reports about 115,000 Afghans displaced. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, China and Uzbekistan have each mediated pauses or talks, none of which ended the war; Pakistan has also expelled large numbers of Afghan refugees.

Where it stands: Ongoing. After a calmer summer, Pakistan struck eastern Afghanistan again on 21–24 September and Kunar and Helmand on 30 September 2026; UNAMA has called for de-escalation and dialogue, and no ceasefire is in force.

The parties

  • Afghanistan (Taliban government)

    33%

    Answered the strikes with border retaliation and accepted every pause, but has not shown it has stopped the groups that attack Pakistan from its soil.

    • Launched a four-hour retaliatory operation on the border on 26 February 2026, after five days of Pakistani strikes.
    • Accepted the Eid al-Fitr pause and joined the talks in Ürümqi and Termez.
    • Accused of sheltering the TTP, which it denies; Pakistan says drones have been flown from Afghanistan into Pakistan.

    🇦🇫 Afghanistan in the nations ranking33%

  • Pakistan

    23%

    Struck a neighbouring Muslim country first, bombed its capital and has killed hundreds of its civilians in pursuit of armed groups.

    • Opened the war with air strikes on Nangarhar, Paktika and Khost on 21 February 2026.
    • Bombed Kabul and declared 'open war' on 26 February 2026; struck Bagram and Jalalabad.
    • At least 372 Afghan civilians killed in its strikes by May 2026 (UNAMA); 10 more, mostly children, on 30 September.
    • Denies Kabul's account of the 16 March strike on the Omid hospital, which Kabul says killed over 200.
    • Satellite images (BBC Dari, March 2026) show land fenced off inside Paktika.

    🇵🇰 Pakistan in the nations ranking23%

  • Pakistani Taliban (TTP), ISIS–K and Baloch armed groups

    Bomb mosques, markets and soldiers inside Pakistan — the attacks Pakistan cites for its war.

    • ISIS–K killed 31 worshippers in Islamabad on 6 February 2026.
    • A suicide bombing in Dera Ismail Khan killed at least 12 on 26 September 2026.

    An armed group, not a nation — not scored in the ranking.

Articles

How each nation is scored — the twelve principles of our policy reforms
  1. Justice (adl). No one's land, life, rights or wealth taken unjustly; justice upheld for everyone, even enemies, and what was wrongly taken given back. Economic, Financial, Political and National Policy Reform
  2. Protection of life (hifz al-nafs). Life is sacred: non-combatants never targeted, war only against real aggression, and no help given to another's aggression. Political Policy Reform; the objectives of the sharia (maqasid)
  3. Prohibition of usury and speculation (riba, gharar). Public and private finance built on shared risk and real assets, not interest-bearing debt or speculative bets. Economic, Financial, Political and National Policy Reform
  4. Circulation of wealth and zakat (tadawul al-mal). Wealth must not circulate only among the rich; zakat, endowments and fair wages meet every person's basic needs. Economic, Financial, Political and National Policy Reform
  5. Trust over common resources (amana). Water, energy, minerals and public assets belong to the whole community — not privatised, monopolised or signed away for private or foreign gain. Economic and Financial Policy Reform
  6. Accountability and truthfulness (muhasaba, sidq). Rulers, security forces and firms answer to law and to the public; no coups, state capture, bribery or concealment. Economic, Political and National Policy Reform
  7. Legitimate authority by consultation (shura). Rule rests on the community's consent, given through consultation and a free pledge — not inheritance, force or foreign backing. Political and National Policy Reform
  8. Kept covenants and peacemaking (wafa bil-ahd, sulh). Treaties, contracts and rulings honoured; an offer of peace met with peace; disputes ended by reconciliation. Economic, Financial and Political Policy Reform
  9. Independence and self-reliance (izza). No foreign power or creditor in control of the nation's revenues or decisions; its own strength, industry and knowledge built. Financial and Political Policy Reform
  10. Human dignity and privacy (karama). Every person's dignity protected — citizen or migrant; no spying on private lives, no torture or humiliation. Economic, Financial, Political and National Policy Reform
  11. Religious freedom (la ikraha fi al-din). No compulsion in religion: every faith free to worship, build and keep its places of worship, dress and teach — Muslims and minorities alike — with no state persecution, bans on religious dress or forced conversion. The objectives of the sharia (maqasid): protection of religion (hifz al-din); Qur'an 2:256
  12. Implementation of the sharia (tatbiq al-sharia). The sharia a source of the nation's law — in family and personal status, finance free of riba, the courts and governance — applied with due process and its objectives (maqasid) in view, not as a slogan. Economic, Financial, Political and National Policy Reform

These are the principles the Policy Reform pages draw from the expert opinions. Each nation is marked 0–5 on each from its record as a state — its economy, government and treatment of its people, and its conduct in its wars — drawn from UN bodies, the ICJ and ICC, human-rights monitors and the reporting under each war. The twelve marks make the percentage; each war a nation started, provoked or joined against another people then takes 15 points off it, and an aggressor always ranks below every nation that started no war. The score judges a state's conduct, not its people or their faith.