Overview
- Pakistan’s information minister said the pause would start at midnight as a Ramadan goodwill step, with military operations to resume if the country is attacked or terrorist incidents occur.
- Taliban spokesman Sabiullah Mudschahid confirmed a reciprocal halt to strikes and warned that forces would retaliate if provoked.
- Reports differ on the duration, with one account citing an end on March 23 and another describing a five‑day pause through the night of March 24.
- Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey were credited by both sides with helping broker the interruption in fighting.
- The pause follows a Pakistani airstrike in Kabul that the Taliban say killed more than 400 people at a destroyed addiction clinic, a claim Pakistan disputes, as the UN human rights office calls for an independent investigation.