Afghanistan Says It Killed 28, Captured 32 Fighters It Claims Crossed From Pakistan

Afghanistan's Taliban administration said on September 27 that its forces killed 28 fighters and captured 32 others in an operation a day earlier in Kamdesh district, in the northeastern province of Nuristan, alleging the group included Islamic State members who had crossed from Pakistan. Pakistan's government rejected the allegation outright, AP reported.

What Afghanistan is claiming

Afghanistan's Ministry of Defence said the fighters were killed or captured on September 26 in Kamdesh, a district in Nuristan that borders Pakistan's northern Chitral district. The ministry alleged that most of the men were former members of the Afghan military who served under the previous government, and that Pakistani intelligence had brought them to Pakistan with promises of asylum abroad and high salaries. It alleged they were then taken to camps set up by Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies, given "brief military training," and sent back into Afghanistan.

Pakistan's denial

Pakistan's Ministry of Information dismissed the account as "frivolous, baseless and devoid of any truth," saying Pakistan "categorically rejects" any suggestion that its security forces or intelligence agencies were involved in the clashes. It denied recruiting or training former Afghan security personnel or facilitating Islamic State or other militants, and said Afghanistan had provided no evidence such as identities, documents, communications or forensic material. The ministry described a circulating video showing a few unarmed people as a "pre-planned video shoot" by the Taliban government and accused Kabul of trying to "manufacture a Pakistani connection."

A third account

The Afghanistan Freedom Front, an anti-Taliban armed group, disputed the Taliban's version, the German news agency dpa reported, describing the fighting as a Taliban assault on its positions. Build Better Pakistan could not independently verify any side's account of who the fighters were, who trained them, or how the fighting in Kamdesh unfolded.

Part of a wider pattern of accusation and counter-accusation

The allegation reverses the direction of most of September's border accusations, in which Pakistan has accused Kabul of sheltering Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan fighters who stage attacks on Pakistani soil. That accusation was behind Pakistan's retaliatory airstrikes inside Afghanistan, the Gulistan sector clash near Chaman, and an earlier infiltration attempt repelled in Kurram. Of the strikes, AP reported that Pakistan said they killed 28 militants, while Afghan authorities said three civilians died, a toll the UN confirmed. The incidents come as Pakistani forces continue counter-militancy operations in Balochistan.

Afghanistan does not recognise the Durand Line, the 2,611-kilometre frontier with Pakistan, as an international border.

Build Better Pakistan's Foreign Desk is tracking developments along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and will update this piece as verified details emerge.