Reporting snapshot · 28 September 2026. Pakistan's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting formally rejected the Afghan Taliban's allegation that Pakistani security forces and intelligence services helped Daesh-linked fighters enter Afghanistan's Nuristan province, calling the claim "frivolous, baseless and devoid of any truth". This is a dated snapshot drawn from Reuters, The News International, Dawn, The Express Tribune, Arab News, Radio Pakistan and The Nation, and it tracks the language of Islamabad's fact-check rather than establishing the facts of the Kamdesh clashes independently.
What happened
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued a formal “fact-check” on Sunday, 27 September, rejecting allegations by the Afghan Taliban’s Ministry of Defence that Pakistani security forces and intelligence agencies had helped Daesh-linked fighters enter Afghanistan’s eastern Nuristan province. The ministry’s statement, posted on X and carried by state-run Radio Pakistan, described Kabul’s claim as “frivolous, baseless and devoid of any truth” and accused the Afghan Taliban regime of “externalising internal dissent” by attributing violence on its own soil to Pakistan.
“Pakistan categorically rejects the fabricated claims of involvement by its security forces or intelligence agencies in any internal clashes in Nuristan or elsewhere in Afghanistan, including allegations of recruiting or training former Afghan security personnel or facilitating Daesh or any other terrorist group operating in Afghanistan,” the ministry said, according to The News International.
The ministry said no evidence had been produced to substantiate the allegations. “There were no identities, documents, communications, forensic evidence or independent verification to support the allegations,” the statement said, Dawn reported. It also dismissed a video circulating on social media that it said was being presented as proof, arguing that it “only shows a few unarmed individuals who are not even properly dressed or equipped” and appeared to be “a pre-planned video shoot by the Afghan Taliban regime well known for lies and fabricated claims”. The Express Tribune and Arab News carried the same language.
The exchange is the latest flashpoint in a worsening Pakistan-Afghanistan relationship that has produced airstrikes, drone interceptions, a formal demarche and a steady stream of mutually incompatible claims since the middle of September.
The Afghan allegation
The Afghan Taliban’s Ministry of Defence said on Sunday that Afghan security forces had killed 28 fighters and captured 32 others, including alleged members of Islamic State / Daesh, after the group crossed from Pakistan into the Kamdesh district of Nuristan on Saturday. The ministry alleged that the fighters included former Afghan government security personnel who had been taken to Pakistan, given brief military training, and sent back across the Durand Line “to create insecurity in Nuristan”, Reuters reported.
The wire service said Pakistan’s military and information ministry “did not immediately respond” when first contacted on Sunday. Pakistan’s formal rejection followed within hours. Reuters also reported that it could not independently verify the Afghan account or its casualty numbers.
The Afghan allegation came days after Pakistan carried out airstrikes inside Afghanistan. On 21 September, Pakistan announced “calibrated” airstrikes against suspected militant hideouts in Kunar and Paktika provinces in response to recent attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including the 18 September Kohat police-lines assault, as KhabarWire reported at the time. The Afghan defence ministry claimed three civilians, not militants, were killed.
The new Afghan claim about Kamdesh is distinct from earlier assertions about airstrikes or cross-border firing. It is the first instance in the current escalation in which Kabul has alleged that Pakistani military or intelligence personnel were directly involved in an armed incursion into Afghan territory.
The diplomatic backdrop
The Nuristan exchange is the most public diplomatic episode in a sequence of bilateral measures since the 18 September Kohat attack. Pakistan’s Foreign Office summoned Afghan Ambassador Sardar Ahmad Shakib and issued a formal demarche over an alleged violation on 23 September, when a drone entered Pakistani airspace near the Torkham and Kohat border areas, The News reported. Eight Afghan-launched drones were later shot down.
The information ministry’s Sunday statement urged the Afghan authorities to “take credible and verifiable action against terrorist organisations operating from its territory” rather than “externalising responsibility for its internal security challenges through what we call fanciful allegations”, as carried by The Nation.
Pakistani security officials cited by The Express Tribune said about 70 per cent of “Fitna al-Khawarij” — officialdom’s term for the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and affiliates — militants infiltrating Pakistan in 2026 were of Afghan origin. The officials also said the Taliban regime had allowed leftover US and NATO weapons to reach groups including Fitna al-Khawarij and Fitna al-Hindustan. Pakistan’s earlier finding of disputed TTP training sites in Kunar, Nangarhar, Khost and Paktika was cited by Dawn on Sunday.
Pakistan cited United Nations monitoring as the basis for its longstanding claim that militant groups operate from Afghan soil. In figures cited by Pakistani authorities and carried by Dawn, terrorism emanating from Afghanistan claimed the lives of 1,327 Pakistanis and injured 2,484 others during 2026. The UN Monitoring Team has assessed the strength of TTP in Afghanistan at 6,000–6,500 fighters and documented more than 600 attacks against Pakistan in 2025.
The information ministry’s statement also said the allegations were “reflective of lies to externalise internal dissent and oppression of women, children and minorities” — a formulation that points to a wider framing of the dispute beyond the Kamdesh incident.
What is still uncertain
Several questions are unresolved. The identity and nationality of the fighters described in the Afghan defence ministry’s account, and the figures of 28 killed and 32 captured, were not independently verified when this article was published. Reuters said it could not independently verify the Afghan account; Pakistan’s information ministry did not directly rebut the casualty figures, focusing instead on the absence of evidence and the social-media video.
The link to Pakistan’s recent airstrikes also remains unestablished by either side. Pakistan has not produced public evidence that the Kamdesh operation was connected to its Kunar and Paktika strikes of 21 September, and Kabul has not directly tied its allegation to the airstrikes, framing the new claim as a separate “infiltration” of fighters from Pakistani-run camps. The deeper bilateral question — what the Afghan Taliban does next in response to Pakistan’s formal rejection — is the same one that has followed every Pakistani demand since the Kohat attack: whether condemnation and demands for “credible and verifiable” action are followed by further escalation or by quiet steps behind closed doors.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a synthesis of published material, not eyewitness reporting. Sources were reviewed on 28 September 2026. The Pakistani information ministry's rejection and the language of its fact-check come from Radio Pakistan (the state broadcaster), The News International, Dawn, The Express Tribune and Arab News; the Afghan defence ministry's account, the Kamdesh casualty figures and the Pakistani response delay come from Reuters; the diplomatic backdrop, including the formal demarche over the 23 September drone incursion and the security-official casualty estimates, comes from The News International, The Express Tribune and The Nation; and the Pakistani authorities' cumulative toll and UN-cited TTP figures come from Dawn.
- Reuters27 September 2026 · Primary wire account of the Afghan defence ministry's Kamdesh allegation, the casualty figures (28 killed, 32 captured) and Pakistan's initial non-response; Reuters said it could not independently verify the Afghan account.
- The News International27 September 2026 · Independent report of the information ministry's full fact-check statement, the rebuttal of the social-media video, and the Foreign Office's separate 23 September demarche over the drone incursion near Torkham and Kohat.
- Dawn27 September 2026 · Independent report of the Pakistani rejection, the absence of evidence, the cumulative 2026 toll (1,327 killed, 2,484 injured), the UN-cited TTP strength (6,000–6,500) and the placement of the exchange in the context of the 21 September airstrikes.
- The Express Tribune28 September 2026 · Independent report of the information ministry's statement, the security officials' estimate that about 70 per cent of Fitna al-Khawarij infiltrators are of Afghan origin, and the historical pattern of Afghan allegations against Pakistan.
- Radio Pakistan27 September 2026 · Official text of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting's fact-check statement as carried by the state broadcaster.
- Arab News27 September 2026 · Independent report of the Pakistani rejection and the rebuttal of the social-media video.
- The Nation28 September 2026 · Independent report of the information ministry's statement and the demand for "credible and verifiable action" against militant groups operating from Afghan territory.
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