Afghanistan says its forces killed 28 fighters and captured 32 others, including alleged Islamic State members who it claims crossed from Pakistan into Nuristan province.
The Afghan Defence Ministry said the operation took place on Saturday in Kamdesh district, as tensions between the two neighbours continued to intensify over militant activity and recent cross-border attacks.
It alleged that several Islamic State-affiliated groups had been sent from Pakistan with the support of Pakistani authorities “with the aim of carrying out acts of subversion and creating insecurity”.
The ministry said most of those involved were former members of Afghanistan’s military, which served under the government ousted when the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.
According to the Afghan account, Pakistani intelligence agencies had taken the men to Pakistan after promising to help them secure asylum abroad and obtain highly paid work. It alleged they were instead given brief military training at camps run by Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies before being sent back into Afghanistan.
Pakistan rejects Nuristan allegations
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information rejected the claims as “frivolous, baseless and devoid of any truth”. It said its security forces and intelligence agencies had not been involved in clashes in Nuristan or elsewhere in Afghanistan.
The ministry also denied recruiting or training former Afghan security personnel, or assisting Islamic State or other militant groups. It said Kabul had offered no evidence, such as identities, documents, communications or forensic material, to support the allegations.
Pakistan dismissed a video circulating on social media as showing only a small number of unarmed people and described it as part of a “pre-planned video shoot” by Afghanistan’s Taliban government.
Islamabad said the presence and activities of militant groups in Afghanistan had been documented by the United Nations and other international organisations. It accused Kabul of attempting to “manufacture a Pakistani connection” to distract from what it described as the continued presence of militants in Afghanistan.
The two countries dispute the status of their 2,600km frontier, known as the Durand Line, which Afghanistan does not recognise as an international border.
The latest confrontation follows Pakistani air strikes on sites in eastern Afghanistan on Monday. Pakistan said the strikes killed 28 militants, while Afghan authorities reported that three civilians died, a toll confirmed by the United Nations.
Pakistan’s military said on Sunday that its forces had killed more than 71 militants in multiple operations across the south-western province of Balochistan during the preceding 96 hours.
The operations targeted hideouts belonging to groups Islamabad calls Fitna al-Khawarij and Fitna al-Hindustan, terms it uses for the Afghanistan-based Pakistani Taliban and members of the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army.
Pakistan frequently accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of allowing Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, to operate from Afghan territory and launch attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul denies providing the group with a safe haven and rejects the accusations.
