Afghanistan says 28 fighters killed, 32 captured after crossing from Pakistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan said on Sunday that its forces killed 28 fighters and captured 32 others, including alleged members of the Islamic State group said to have crossed from neighboring Pakistan.

Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have increased in recent days, with cross-border fighting and Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan territory adding to longstanding disputes over militant activity along their border.

Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said in a post on X that the fighters were killed or captured on Saturday in Kamdesh district in the northeastern province of Nuristan. It alleged that several IS-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.”

Afghanistan does not recognize its frontier with Pakistan as an international border. The countries share a 2,611-kilometer (1,622-mile) boundary known as the Durand Line.

Pakistan rejects Afghanistan’s accusations

Pakistan’s Ministry of Information rejected the allegations as “frivolous, baseless and devoid of any truth.” In a post on X, it said Pakistan “categorically rejects” claims that its security forces or intelligence agencies were involved in clashes in Nuristan or elsewhere in Afghanistan. It also denied recruiting or training former Afghan security personnel or facilitating IS or other militants.

The ministry said Afghanistan had provided no evidence to support its allegations, including identities, documents, communications or forensic material. It dismissed a video circulating on social media as showing only a few unarmed people and described it as part of a “pre-planned video shoot” by Afghanistan’s Taliban government.

Pakistan said the presence and activities of militant groups in Afghanistan had been documented in reports by the United Nations and other international organizations. It accused Kabul of trying to “manufacture a Pakistani connection” to obscure what it described as the continued presence of militants in Afghanistan.

Islamabad says its forces killed scores of militants

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s military said Sunday that its forces had killed more than 71 militants during multiple operations in southwestern Balochistan province over the previous 96 hours. The military said the operations targeted hideouts of groups it refers to as Fitna al-Khawarij and Fitna al-Hindustan, terms used by Islamabad for Afghanistan-based Pakistani Taliban and members of the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA.

Pakistan frequently accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of allowing the Pakistani Taliban, formally known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, to operate from Afghan territory and carry out attacks inside Pakistan. The TTP is separate from Afghanistan’s Taliban but is allied with it. Kabul denies providing the group a safe haven and has rejected Pakistan’s accusations.

The latest hostilities followed Pakistani airstrikes Monday on sites in eastern Afghanistan that Pakistan described as militant hideouts. Pakistan said the strikes killed 28 militants, while Afghan authorities said three civilians were killed, a toll confirmed by the United Nations.

The Afghan Defense Ministry said most of those involved in the alleged Nuristan plot were former members of Afghanistan’s military who served under the previous government, which was ousted when the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.

“According to available information, Pakistani intelligence agencies had brought them to Pakistan under the promise that arrangements would be made for them to obtain asylum in foreign countries and receive high salaries,” the ministry said.

It alleged that the men were instead taken to camps established by Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies, given brief military training and sent back into Afghanistan to create insecurity in parts of Nuristan, which borders Pakistan’s northern Chitral district.

The ministry called on “all young people and former military personnel who have been deceived by Pakistani intelligence agencies” not to become further victims of what it described as enemy conspiracies.

____

Ahmed reported from Islamabad.