Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has emphasized the need for durable peace in the South Asian region but hit out at India and said India is driving Islamaphobia.

President Ashraf Ghani and Pakistan’s Prime Minister held a telephone conversation Friday where both parties agreed there was an urgent need for a ceasefire.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Interior downplayed claims of Taliban checkpoint activity in Kabul on Saturday but a video clip shared on social media sparked concern among the city’s residents.

A member of the Taliban’s negotiating team, Khairullah Khairkhwa, said on Saturday that the main point of contention in the ongoing intra-Afghan talks in Doha was that the Afghanistan Republic was refusing to deal with the current talks in the framework of the US-Taliban agreement.

US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said Thursday Washington had offered to meet with Iran in a bid to garner their assistance to end the war in Afghanistan. Speaking at a virtual discussion by the US Institute of Peace, Khalilzad said he would welcome talks with Afghanistan’s neighbor but said Tehran wanted to keep the US “entangled” in the conflict.

The center of Gizab district of Uruzgan province has been under besieging by the Taliban militants for several days, local officials said Friday. According to the officials, thousands of Taliban insurgents have launched offensives to capture Gizab and Dihrawood districts.

At least eight Taliban militants were killed and 11 more wounded in a clash with the Afghan forces in southern Kandahar provinces, police confirmed. The incident took place in Takhta Pul district of Kandahar province on Thursday night.

India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) said on Saturday it has arrested nine al Qaeda militants who were planning attacks in several locations including the capital New Delhi.

Militants have stepped up attacks on security forces in northwest Pakistan raising fears of a revival of their insurgency and a return of lawlessness as brighter prospects for peace in Afghanistan herald shifting Islamist alliances.

For the past decade and a half, American politicians, military leaders, and reporters have claimed that the Taliban is “tired,” “desperate,” “war weary” – despite the fact the Taliban has sparked “near-record violence” in Afghanistan, according to the United Nations.