Calls to impose sanctions on Pakistan for their alleged assistance to the Taliban have been mounting in the past week and by Monday, #SanctionPakistan was trending on Twitter.

As Afghan Twitter users rallied behind the sanctions hashtag, #EndProxyWar also started to gather momentum.

This social media movement comes amid the sharp escalation in violence across the country and just days after Afghanistan’s UN ambassador, Ghulam Isaczai, pleaded with members of the UN Security Council to pressure the Taliban to engage in peace talks.

In his address to the meeting on the Afghanistan situation, Isaczai said the attacks launched around the country have been done with the “direct support of more than 10,000 foreign terrorist fighters representing 20 groups”, including Al-Qaeda and ISIS (Daesh).

He stated that the Taliban “continue to enjoy a safe haven in and supply and logistics line extended to their war machine from Pakistan.”

Isaczai also stated that reports and videos show Taliban fighters “congregating close to the Durand Line” frontier to enter Afghanistan.

He said Taliban hold fund-raising events in Pakistan that the dead are transferred over the border for mass burials and fighters wounded are treated in Pakistani hospitals.

His statement added to the growing outcry among Afghans over the ongoing violence and the suffering being inflicted on the people.

Afghanistan’s First Vice President Amrullah Saleh on Monday also used the sanction hashtag in an appeal he put out to the world via Twitter.

He tweeted: “We call on UN & other international organizations to work with us in providing any type of assistance to massive number of people who have sought refuge in Kabul due to brutality, revenge killing, loot & rape by the Talibs. Painful scenes in the streets of Kabul. #SanctionPakistan”

Chris Alexander, a Canadian diplomat and politician, and former ambassador to Kabul, appears to have been one of the first to tweet using the two hashtags.

On August 2 he said: “There will be no permanent ceasefire in Afghanistan without sanctions against Pakistan. Pakistan’s ‘forever war’ must end. #EndProxyWar #SanctionPakistan”

He also tweeted: “Pakistan’s invasion of Afghanistan constitutes an armed attack & act of aggression under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.

“Any state that fails to act to end Pakistan’s invasion & prevent further Taliban brutality are betraying the women & girls of Afghanistan & making a complete mockery of their commitment to women’s rights,” he tweeted.

On Monday he retweeted a number of #SanctionPakistan posts after tweeting Sunday “Pakistan’s invasion of Afghanistan today deserves the same response as the disastrous Soviet invasion of 1979: armed resistance, international condemnation & sweeping sanctions. #SanctionPakistan”

Fatima Murchal, President Ashraf Ghani’s deputy spokeswoman, also joined in and raised her voice. “We are burning in the flame of the war imposed on us. This unbearable pain we endure due to Int terrorism requires the world to take a stance. This silence indicates a very high tolerance for terrorism. #SanctionTaliban #SanctionPakistan #EndProxyWarInAfghanistan”

Waheed Omer, Director General, Office of Public and Strategic Affairs, meanwhile said: “Hundreds of TB (Taliban) killed and injured daily. No TB patients in our hospitals. No funerals for them in our villages. No one knows their family, relatives, village. “Bodies transferred to Pak (Pakistan) for mass funerals. Injured taken to Pak hospitals for treatment. It’s PAK. #SanctionPakistan,” he said.

One well known social media activist tweeted Monday that the hashtag campaign was quickly gathering momentum.

He said: “Thank you all for speaking up. The Afghan twitter trend is now global with more than 100k and growing with a fast pace. Afghanistan needs all these voices. Speak louder and defend Afghanistan against Pakistani invasion. #SanctionPakistan”.