Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire during talks hosted by Doha, Qatar's Foreign Ministry announced early on Sunday, after the South Asian neighbors extended a ceasefire following a week of fierce border clashes.

Qatar's Foreign Ministry said Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to the ceasefire during a round of negotiations mediated by Qatar and Türkiye on Saturday.

It said they also agreed to hold follow-up meetings in the coming days "to ensure the sustainability of the ceasefire and verify its implementation in a reliable and sustainable manner."

Earlier, both sides said they were holding peace talks in Doha on Saturday as they sought a way forward after the clashes killed dozens and wounded hundreds in the worst violence between the two countries since 2021.

Taliban denies giving haven to militants

The ground fighting and Pakistani airstrikes across their contested 2,600-kilometer frontier were triggered after Islamabad demanded that Kabul rein in militants who had stepped up attacks in Pakistan, saying they operated from havens in Afghanistan.

The Taliban denies giving haven to militants to attack Pakistan and accuses the Pakistani military of spreading misinformation about Afghanistan and sheltering Islamic State-linked militants to undermine its stability and sovereignty. Islamabad denies the accusations.

The militants have been fighting for years against the Pakistani state in a bid to overthrow the government and replace it with a strict Islamic governance system.

On Friday, a suicide attack near the border killed seven Pakistani soldiers and wounded 13, security officials said.

"The Afghan regime must rein in the proxies who have sanctuaries in Afghanistan and are using Afghan soil to perpetrate heinous attacks inside Pakistan," Pakistan Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir said on Saturday.

Pakistan conducts airstrikes in Afghanistan

The Afghan government spokesperson said Pakistan had conducted airstrikes in Afghanistan hours after the ceasefire, which began on Wednesday, was extended on Friday for as long as the talks continued.

He said the attacks targeted civilians, adding that Kabul reserved the right to respond but that Afghan fighters had been directed to refrain from retaliating to respect the negotiating team.

Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said in a post on X on Saturday that Pakistan had struck "verified" camps of Islamist militants along the border areas and rejected claims that the strikes had targeted civilians. He said militants had attempted to launch multiple attacks inside Pakistan during the ceasefire period.

He said more than 100 militants were killed by Pakistani security forces, the majority of them in strikes against a militant group that he said had carried out Friday's suicide attack on the military camp.

(With input from Reuters)