Nuristan violence: Pakistan rejects Afghan Taliban allegations

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday rejected allegations by the Afghan Taliban regime that Pakistani security forces and intelligence agencies were involved in violence in Afghanistan’s Nuristan province, describing the claims as “frivolous, baseless and devoid of any truth”. In a fact-check issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Islamabad dismissed claims that Pakistani agencies had recruited or trained former Afghan security personnel or facilitated Daesh or other militant groups operating in Afghanistan. The ministry said the Afghan authorities had provided no evidence to support their allegations. “Not a shred of evidence has been produced to substantiate Pakistan’s involvement no identities, documents, communications, forensic evidence or independent verification, ” it said. The statement followed an allegation by the Afghan Taliban’s Ministry of Defence that several groups affiliated with Daesh, along with what it described as “elements of subversion”, had crossed the Durand Line into Kamdesh district in Nuristan with the support of Pakistani militias. According to the Taliban ministry, its security forces killed 28 of the alleged infiltrators and captured another 32, while the remaining militants fled back across the Durand Line. Pakistan also rejected a video circulated on social media as purported evidence supporting the Afghan claims. The information ministry said the footage showed only a few unarmed individuals who were neither properly dressed nor equipped, describing it as appearing to be a pre-planned video shoot. It accused the Afghan Taliban regime of having a record of making what it called “lies and fabricated claims”. The ministry said successive reports by the United Nations and other international organisations had documented the presence and activities of various militant groups inside Afghanistan. Attempts to establish a Pakistani connection, it said, could not obscure what it described as the continued presence of terrorist organisations in Afghanistan and the “permissive environment” in which they were able to operate and expand. “It is particularly ironic for the Afghan Taliban regime to accuse Pakistan of supporting terrorism while terrorist organisations operating from Afghanistan continue to pose a direct threat to Pakistan and regional security, ” the statement said. Islamabad urged the Taliban authorities to take “credible and verifiable action” against militant organisations operating from Afghan territory and honour their commitments that Afghan soil would not be used for terrorism against Pakistan or any other country. Instead, it said, the Taliban authorities were seeking to deflect responsibility through what Pakistan described as fabricated allegations. The ministry further alleged that the claims were part of an effort by the Taliban regime to externalise internal dissent and divert attention from what it described as its treatment of women, children and minorities. Copyright Business Recorder, 2026

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