The information ministry on Friday refuted Afghanistan’s claims of targeting alleged terrorist camps in the border areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
In a statement on its fact check account, the ministry said, “The Afghan Taliban regime, through their various propaganda mouthpieces and official statements, is claiming to have targeted some alleged ISKP camps in border areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan using rudimentary drones.
“The claims are false as usual,” it declared.
The ministry added that terrorist camps, including “those of Daesh and more than two dozen other terrorist organisations are factually located, run and patronised from inside the territories under control of [the] Afghan Taliban regime”.
According to the statement, one rudimentary drone of the Taliban regime intruded into Pakistan’s airspace near Shinko, Khyber and was “immediately identified and neutralised by the alert air defence system of the Pakistan Air Force”.
The ministry also shared a picture of the aforementioned drone.
It asserted that the Taliban regime was “used to [issuing] such fake and nefarious statements” to cover their “patronisation of terror waged in neighbouring countries and region, including that from Daesh, Fitna Al Khawarij, Fitna Al Hindustan and others”.
The Pakistani government uses the term ‘Fitna Al Khawarij’ to refer to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its affiliates. It uses the term ‘Fitna Al Hindustan’ to refer to groups it accuses of being sponsored by India to execute terrorist attacks on Pakistani soil.
Earlier in the day, the Afghan Taliban had claimed to have launched “air strikes” on what it described as “terrorist hideouts” in KP and Balochistan, both of which share a border with Afghanistan.
The development comes over a week after Pakistan carried out strikes on terrorist hideouts along its border with Afghanistan, which Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said killed 26 terrorists.
Those strikes were carried out in the aftermath of continued terrorist incidents in Pakistan that targeted military and police personnel.
Islamabad has repeatedly urged the Taliban administration to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries on Afghan soil, particularly those linked to TTP. Officials say those appeals have gone unheeded.
The Afghan Taliban have denied the allegations and say militancy in Pakistan is an internal problem.
In February, following unprovoked firing by the Afghan Taliban from across the border, Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq.
China’s mediation between Islamabad and Kabul, as part of which talks were held in Urumqi in April, resulted in a lull in hostilities until the June 9 strikes by Pakistan.
For its part, the Foreign Office has underscored that progress in ties with Afghanistan hinges on credible counter-terrorism assurances from Kabul, particularly a commitment that its soil would not be used for attacks against Pakistan.
Islamabad has also repeatedly voiced its concerns about the usage of Afghan soil for cross-border terrorism on international platforms, particularly the United Nations.
Earlier this month, Pakistan’s Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad told the UN Security Council (UNSC) that Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers must take “verifiable and non-reversible action” against terrorist groups operating from Afghan territory.
“Regrettably, this demand remains unmet,” he said.
