Pakistan dismisses Afghan Taliban claims of captured posts 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, terming them false, fabricated and aimed at misleading the Afghan public.

In a statement posted on X, the ministry’s fact-checking account shared a picture from Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defence account claiming that a Pakistani military checkpost 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 are unfortunately first hand experiencing and suffering under these terror sponsors”.

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

“Damages and losses incurred by master proxy Afghan Taliban and their extension Fitna Al Khawarij are being regularly updated by MOIB,” the statement said, adding that related video and pictorial evidence, where applicable, was also shared with the media rather than resorting to fake claims and propaganda.

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

The ministry added that great care was being exercised to provide credible and timely information about the ongoing targeted operations against terrorists and their support infrastructure inside 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 damages and losses incurred by the Afghan Taliban and the TTP were regularly updated by the Ministry of Information with “irrefutable pictorial and video evidence”.

Prime minister’s spokesperson for foreign media, Mosharraf Zaidi, said the Afghan Taliban were “spending more time weaving fantasies than they are getting rid of the TTP, BLA and other terrorist organisations enjoying Afghan Taliban regime hospitality”.

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He added that propaganda would not cause Pakistan to end its counterterrorism 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 attacked “important installations” in Islamabad in a drone strike, a claim the Ministry of Information’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 civilian populations.

The developments come as Pakistan continues its “Operation Ghazab Lil Haq”, launched after renewed clashes along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, when Afghan Taliban forces fired on multiple locations, prompting swift military retaliation.

Islamabad said its February air strikes that sparked 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 rejected. The border fighting has hit multiple Afghan provinces.

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