New Delhi: Pakistan and Afghanistan are battling it out not just across border lines, but also on the internet. As the neighbours agreed on a 48-hour ceasefire following days of intense fighting, Afghans and Pakistanis mocked each other’s armies. It is now being dubbed as a fight between “the Army of Satan and the Army of Allah”.
Several videos emerged on social media showing Afghan fighters celebrating what they called a “win” over Pakistan. Some clips depicted Taliban forces parading with captured Pakistani tanks and weapons near the shared border, while others showed fighters displaying the trousers, allegedly of Pakistani soldiers who fled their positions during the clashes.
Afghan journalist Daud Junbish posted one such video on X, writing: “‘Empty trousers’, recovered from abandoned military posts of the Pakistani army near Durand Line displayed in eastern Nangrahar province, Afghanistan.”
Another Afghanistan-based journalist, Wakeel Mubariz, also mocked Pakistan, tweeting: “Today was the day of 93000 Pants ceremony 2.0,” in reference to Pakistan’s 1971 surrender before the Indian Army.
Pakistanis were quick to hit back. Usman Pervaiz Malik, a Pakistani commentator, shared a video and wrote in response: “We congratulate Afghan athletes for running at such a high speed. Dressed in an Afghan army uniform.”
Other Pakistani users posted photos of small bombs with the caption “Love from Pakistan.” This led to Afghanis comparing the conflict to Israel’s war in Gaza, accusing Pakistan of similar aggression.
Even politicians joined in the war of words. When Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif alleged that the Taliban were fighting India’s proxy war against Pakistan, Mariam Solaimankhil, a former Afghanistan MP, clapped back at him and said: “Pakistan didn’t ‘host’ Afghans, it milked them for billions, global relevance, cheap labor and geopolitical leverage. Enough with the victim act. Afghans paid the bill for your survival.”
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday that “Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to a temporary 48-hour ceasefire following days of intense border clashes.” According to Pakistan, the ceasefire came into effect “with mutual consent”, while the Taliban regime maintained that it was Pakistan that had “requested and insisted” on it.
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Rising rhetoric, fading support
Amid the rising rhetoric, a few sane voices prevailed. Pakistani Pashtun activist Ismat Raza Shahjahan issued a warning about the dangers of a full-scale war. “Launching a full-scale conventional war on Afghanistan with modern, high-tech weaponry and jets is not a show of strength; it is an open invitation to a protracted guerrilla war in Pakhtunkhwa,” she wrote in a Facebook post.
“The only path to peace in Pashtunland is to recognise Afghanistan as a sovereign state and to admit that the Durand Line is not a territorial problem to be solved by force but a political problem that demands a political settlement,” she added.
“Yet for those who profit from war, the Second Cold War is business, and human lives are the cost of their gain. But history has never been kind to those who build empires on the graves of other nations.”
Pakistani poet and author Atif Touqeer agreed. “The Afghan people have been witnessing the devastation of war and continuous destruction for the past half-century. Yet, there is absolutely no sense of shame among us for imposing a terrorist force like the Taliban on them. In this entire conflict, the Taliban should be targeted, and while apologizing to the Afghan nation for their crimes, we should stand with them,” he wrote on X.
Afghan journalist Sami Yousafzai wrote on X: “Unfortunately, if Afpak conflict continues, it could become a mirror of the Saudi–Yemen war. Afghanistan risks turning into another Yemen — a situation with no real winners. Pakistan is engaging in an unnecessary but extremely dangerous conflict, one that promises only endless loss. In Yemen, Saudi Arabia never truly won, and Yemen never truly lost — the real losers were ordinary people.”
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)