October 18, 2025—The fragile 48-hour truce between Pakistan and Afghanistan, hammered out in Doha on October 15, 2025, has crumbled under the weight of fresh border strikes, with artillery duels and reported drone incursions in Kurram and Paktika provinces claiming at least 20 lives since dawn and plunging the nuclear-armed neighbors into renewed peril. The ceasefire, a tenuous lifeline brokered by Qatari mediators amid a week of escalating clashes that killed over 120, was meant to pave the way for permanent peace talks