After the Afghan Taliban has launched a wave of artillery strikes against Pakistani checkpoints across the border, many fear that war might break up between the neighbouring countries.
The Islamist group claimed to have destroyed "several" enemy positions and dispatched battalions of fighters to the border in anticipation of any response from Islamabad.
The tension followed Pakistani air strikes on the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a separate group but close ally to the Afghan Taliban, in eastern Afghanistan. Afghan officials say the strikes killed 46 civilians, mainly women and children.
Islamabad covertly backed the Afghan Taliban against the US-led occupation of Afghanistan, seeking to put itself in a strong position in the war-torn region.
However, Islambad has also fought a decades-long campaign to crush the TTP, which routinely targets Pakistani soldiers in terrorist attacks.
Pakistani military leaders hoped that Islamabad’s sponsorship of the Afghan Taliban would lead to it co-operating, or at least standing aside, in its anti-TTP campaign.
But the Afghan Taliban has reportedly funnelled weapons seized from departing US troops to the TTP, which has drastically stepped up its attacks inside Pakistan since the fall of Kabul in 2021.
The two neighbouring countries have a strained relationship, with Pakistan saying that several militant attacks that have been conducted in the country have been launched from Afghan soil – a charge the Afghan Taliban denies.
The TTP claimed a raid last week on an army outpost near the Afghan border that Pakistan said killed 16 soldiers.
A video posted online on 30 December shows several TTP members celebrating by dancing and raising their guns in the air after seizing a Pakistani border checkpoint.
"We will not forget Pakistan’s benevolence during the time of jihad, but we will not forget Pakistan’s aggression on Afghan soil today," Amir Khan Muttaqi, a senior official, said.
"I have a message for Pakistani authorities: don’t think we are weak and don’t attack us," he added. "We are having difficulties but are very brave."