History Illustrated: Afghanistan, India and Pakistan: A trinity of troubles

Recent attacks in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan point to dramatic changes in regional alliances rooted both in past colonial hubris and present-day security concerns. As the three neighbours reshape the geopolitical landscape, soldiers and civilians are being killed while the international community grows nervous. How did it ever come to this?

Some of it has to do with the Durand Line of 1893, agreed to by Henry Mortimer Durand, in British colonial India, and Abdur Rahman Khan, the Afghan leader appointed by Britain. The line at first divided Afghanistan and India. But after the partition of India in 1947, it became the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, a frontier no Afghan government has ever recognised.

Afghanistan rejects the Durand Line, seeing it as a border imposed by the British that divides its Pashtun people. As a result, Afghanistan was the only country to vote against Pakistan’s admission to the UN.

Despite the snub, Pakistan backed the mujahideen against the Soviets in the 1980s and was the Afghan Taliban’s chief patron until the Taliban resumed power in 2021. Today, Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of sheltering the Pakistan Taliban (TTP), which has waged a violent campaign against Islamabad since 2007. Afghanistan denies the charge.

Enter India, which Pakistan says backs the Afghan Taliban and, by extension, the TTP, a charge India rejects.
In October 2025, while fighting flared on the Afghan-Pakistan border, Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi visited India, to tighten ties. Pakistan did not fail to notice.

These are difficult times. In April 2025, gunmen killed 26 people in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir. India blamed Pakistan, which denied involvement. In May, the two exchanged missile and drone attacks for four days before declaring a ceasefire.

On October 10, fighting across the Afghan-Pakistan border broke out before a 48-hour truce took hold on October 15. Three days later, Pakistani jets bombed Afghanistan. On November 8, talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan collapsed in Turkiye, with the TTP issue unresolved.

Two days later, a car exploded in New Delhi, killing at least 13 people. India called it a “terror incident” but refrained from blaming Pakistan, which it often does. Less than 24 hours later, a suicide bomber in Islamabad killed 12 people. Pakistan blamed the TTP. India and Afghanistan denied any role.

As things now stand, Pakistan feels threatened, geographically and politically sandwiched as it is between Afghanistan and India. India and Pakistan both have nuclear weapons. Afghanistan has withstood great military powers. It is safe to say that maintaining peace in the region is in most people’s best interests.

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