Pakistan has formally summoned an Afghan diplomat in Islamabad to deliver a demarche over recent violations of Pakistani airspace, the foreign ministry announced on Monday, as bilateral tensions remain high.
Tensions between the two neighbors have flared up following a militant attack on a police compound in Pakistan’s northwestern Kohat district on Sept. 18, which killed 23 people, including 17 police personnel and six civilians.
Pakistan conducted airstrikes in Afghanistan last Monday, stating it had killed 28 militants, though the Taliban reported that the strikes killed three civilians. Islamabad followed up by striking ten more locations on Thursday after alleging that drones had entered Pakistani airspace from Afghanistan.
“The last demarche the Ministry of Foreign Affairs delivered to the Afghan side was on account of airspace violation by drones on Sept. 23,” Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Sajjad Haider Khan told Arab News on Monday.
The statement came a day after Kabul announced that its forces had killed 28 fighters and captured 32 others in northeastern Nuristan province, alleging that several Daesh-affiliated groups were sent with Pakistani support to carry out attacks in Afghanistan. Islamabad denied involvement, arguing that Kabul had produced no evidence to substantiate the claims.
The latest accusations come amid a sharp deterioration in relations between the neighbors over militant violence. On Saturday, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for an attack near the Aman Mela checkpoint in Dera Ismail Khan district that killed at least 12 people and wounded over 30, according to police officials.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused Afghanistan’s Taliban government of sheltering TTP and other militants who Islamabad says use Afghan territory to plan and carry out attacks across the border. Kabul denies providing militants safe haven and says Pakistan’s security problems are an internal matter.
In October of last year, Pakistani and Afghan forces fought their deadliest border clashes since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021. A temporary ceasefire and subsequent mediation efforts failed to resolve the underlying dispute over militant sanctuaries, and sporadic fighting and Pakistani strikes inside Afghanistan have continued since then.