Pakistan dismisses Afghan Taliban claims of captured positions as ‘false and fabricated’

The Information Ministry on Saturday rejected claims by the Afghan Taliban regime of capturing a Pakistani military post and inflicting damage, calling them false, fabricated and aimed at misleading the Afghan public.

In a statement issued on X, the ministry’s fact-checking account shared an image from Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense account that claimed a Pakistani military checkpoint had been captured and 14 soldiers had been killed, dismissing the claim as “false as always, fabricated and designed to mislead Afghan internal public opinion, which unfortunately are these sponsors who suffer first-hand terror”.

It said claims by the Taliban’s “so-called Ministry of Defence” were part of a propaganda pattern that had “always caught their eye once verified”, adding that “there has been no credible and verifiable evidence for such repeated frivolous claims made by the Taliban outlets”.

“Injuries and losses incurred by the master proxy Afghan Taliban and their extension Fitna Al Khawarij is regularly updated by MOIB,” the statement said, adding that related video and photo evidence, where relevant, was also shared with the media instead of resorting to false allegations and propaganda.

Fitna Al Khawarij is a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The ministry added that great care was taken to provide credible and timely information about the ongoing targeted operations against terrorists and their support infrastructure in areas under the Afghan Taliban regime.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar also commented on the matter, saying, “These false claims have no basis or foundation.”

Tarar added that the damage and losses sustained by the Afghan Taliban and the TTP were regularly updated by the information ministry with “irrefutable photo and video evidence”.

The prime minister’s foreign media spokesman, Mosharraf Zaidi, said the Afghan Taliban “spend more time weaving fantasies than they are getting rid of the TTP, BLA and other terrorist organizations that enjoy the hospitality of the Afghan Taliban regime”.

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He added that propaganda would not make Pakistan end its anti-terror operations. “Only the end of terrorism from Afghan soil to Pakistan will.”

This was not the first such claim by the Afghan Taliban. A day earlier, they had claimed to have successfully targeted “vital installations” in Islamabad in a drone strike, a claim that the Information Ministry’s fact-checking account dismissed as fake news and propaganda.

Read: Pakistani forces intercept Afghan Taliban drones, vow firm response to cross-border terrorism

Pakistan’s armed forces intercepted a few rudimentary drones allegedly launched by the Afghan Taliban on March 13 in what officials described as a failed attempt to harass civilians.

The development comes as Pakistan continues its “Operation Ghazab Lil Haq”, which was launched after renewed clashes along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, when Afghan Taliban forces fired at several locations, prompting swift military retaliation.

Islamabad said its airstrikes in February that triggered the escalation were targeting terrorists. Islamabad accused Afghanistan of failing to act against terrorist groups that carry out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban government denied. The border fighting has affected several Afghan provinces.

The violence in recent days is the worst since October fighting killed more than 70 people on both sides, with land borders between the neighbors largely closed since.