By Our Correspondent

KABUL -  The leader of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has held a high-level meeting with the Afghan Taliban’s army chief in Kabul, according to reliable sources in the Afghan capital -- a development that could further inflame already critical tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Sources within the Taliban’s Defense Ministry told The South Asia Times that Noor Wali Mehsud, head of the TTP, met Fasihuddin Fitrat, Chief of Staff of the Afghan Taliban, at the Defense Ministry compound on Friday morning.

The meeting was reportedly attended by several senior Taliban defense and intelligence officials. Mehsud was accompanied by a number of his senior commanders, the source said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, the source said he was unaware of the specific agenda or outcomes of the discussions.

Taliban Defense Ministry spokesman Enayatullah Khowarazmi did not respond to requests for comment from The South Asia Times. Although he read a message sent via WhatsApp, no reply was received.

The reported meeting comes just one day after some of the most intense cross-border clashes in recent months between Afghan Taliban and Pakistani security forces along the roughly 2,600-kilometer border.

Pakistan’s military said 12 of its soldiers lost their lives in coordinated attacks on border posts launched by the Taliban on Thursday evening. It added that retaliatory operations were ongoing and had inflicted heavy losses, with more than 350 Taliban were killed and over 530 wounded. Taliban, however, said 13 of their personnel were killed and 22 others injured.

Later on Friday evening, Mehsud released an audio message pledging support for the Afghan Taliban. In the recording, he urged his militants to back Kabul’s authorities and announced the launch of a new campaign titled “Defending the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”

“We have always supported the Afghan Taliban, and now it is time to support them again,” he said.

- TTP leaders living in Kabul?

Islamabad has long accused the Afghan Taliban of providing sanctuary and operational support to the TTP -- a militant group that shares ideological roots with Afghan Taliban and has waged a deadly insurgency against the Pakistani state for years.

Pakistani officials say TTP leaders and militants operate with relative freedom from bases in Afghan provinces, including Kunar, Nangarhar, Khost, Nuristan, Paktia, and Paktika.

The Taliban authorities in Kabul have consistently denied these allegations, reiterating their pledge not to allow Afghan territory to be used for attacks against any other country -- a key provision of the 2020 Doha Agreement with the United States.

Pakistan has also expressed concern that advanced weapons and military equipment left behind by US forces following their 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan have fallen into the hands of the TTP and other terrorist groups, fueling attacks inside Pakistan.

Some Pakistani officials further allege that regional actors, particularly India, have established contacts with anti-Pakistan terrorist groups based in Afghanistan and are using them to destabilize Pakistan. India has denied such claims.

- Regional implications

The reported meeting -- which will never be confirmed by the Afghan Taliban publicly due to its implications--  between Mehsud and senior Taliban leadership would reinforce Islamabad’s longstanding stand of operational links between the Kabul authorities and the TTP.

A Kabul-based journalist who has covered security affairs for years said that senior TTP leaders have been living in Kabul since 2021 and suggested the reported meeting would not be surprising.

“If the Afghan Taliban are prepared to risk deteriorating relations with Islamabad over the TTP, then meetings in Kabul and public declarations of support would not be unexpected,” the journalist said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The latest developments are likely to deepen mistrust between the two neighbors at a time when border security and militant violence remain pressing concerns for both sides.