Pakistan reported on Monday that at least three soldiers were killed in clashes with militants trying to enter the country from Afghanistan.
A military statement said Pakistani forces intercepted the infiltration attempt at dawn in the border district of Bajaur and “successfully fought and thwarted” it. In the fierce exchange of fire that followed, five attackers were killed and several others injured, it said.
The reported casualties among the militants could not be immediately confirmed by independent sources, nor were there any announcements by anyone claiming responsibility for the attempted incursion.
However, the military blamed fugitive fighters from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is classified as a terrorist group worldwide, for carrying out the attack from their bases on the Afghan side of the border.
“Pakistan has consistently asked the Afghan interim government to ensure effective border security on its side of the border,” the military said, referring to the de facto Taliban rulers of the neighboring country.
The statement reiterated Islamabad’s call on Kabul to “fulfill its obligations and deny the use of Afghan soil by Khwarij (the TTP’s official name in the local language) to carry out terrorist attacks against Pakistan.”
Taliban authorities deny the Pakistani allegations and claim they have secured all Afghan territory and are in “firm” control of it.
“Afghanistan does not pose a threat to any country,” Taliban-run state television quoted deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat as saying on Monday.
“The Islamic Emirate has made it clear that it will not allow the territory of Afghanistan to be used against the security of any other nation,” Fitrat said, using his government’s official title, which is not recognized by any country.
Pakistan has reported a dramatic increase in TTP attacks in the country since the Taliban seized power in Kabul three years ago. According to official and independent reports, several thousand civilians and security forces have been killed or injured in the violence.
The increasing violence has strained relations between the two countries, which share a nearly 2,600-kilometer-long border.
The United Nations supported Islamabad’s complaints and described the TTP as the “largest terrorist group” in Afghanistan in a security assessment released last month.
The report said that up to 6,500 TTP fighters are active on Afghan soil and are carrying out cross-border attacks into Pakistan with growing support from the Taliban government. The UN noted that the fighters are being equipped and trained in al-Qaeda-run training camps in Afghanistan.
The de facto authorities in Kabul dismissed the UN findings as propaganda.
