Recent deadly clashes between Pakistani forces and the Afghan Taliban mark a perilous new chapter in the fraught relationship between the two countries, transforming a long simmering dispute into a direct military confrontation.

The images defied belief— thick, dark smoke climbing into the desert sky over Doha’s glittering towers. The sound of blasts echoed through West Bay Lagoon, an opulent district that is home to foreign embassies, schools, and residential compounds.

When the Taliban overran Kandahar and Helmand, Baloch insurgents sensed their hideouts in Afghanistan were not safe anymore. Under previous Ghani and Karzai governments, the Afghan Taliban provided them shelter, but now the militia was itself the government.