ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday rejected Afghan allegations that its intelligence agencies recruited and trained former Afghan soldiers and helped send Daesh-linked fighters across the border, after Kabul said its forces killed 28 fighters and captured 32 others in northeastern Nuristan province.

Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said the fighters crossed from Pakistan into Kamdesh district on Saturday and alleged several Daesh-affiliated groups had been sent with Pakistani support to carry out attacks. Islamabad denied any involvement and said Kabul had produced no evidence to substantiate the claims.

“The allegations by the Afghan Taliban regime linking Pakistan with the alleged violence in Nuristan are frivolous, baseless and devoid of any truth,” Pakistan’s information ministry said in a statement posted on X.

“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 Afghan Defense Ministry said most of those involved were former members of Afghanistan’s military who served under the previous government, which was ousted when the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.

It alleged Pakistani intelligence agencies had brought the former personnel to Pakistan with promises of asylum abroad and high salaries before taking them to camps run by the country’s military and intelligence agencies, providing brief military training and sending them back into Afghanistan to create insecurity in Nuristan.

Pakistan said no identities, documents, communications, forensic evidence or independent verification had been provided to support the allegations.

It also dismissed a video circulating on social media that it said was being presented as evidence, saying it showed a few unarmed individuals and appeared to be a “pre-planned video shoot.” The authenticity and circumstances of the video could not be independently verified.

The latest accusations come amid a sharp deterioration in relations between the neighbors over militant violence and a series of increasingly direct military confrontations.

Pakistan has repeatedly accused Afghanistan’s Taliban government of sheltering the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (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.

United Nations monitoring reports have documented the presence of militant groups in Afghanistan. A UN report released this year said no member state supported the Taliban authorities’ assertion that there were no militant groups in the country and said the TTP was among the largest groups operating there, with greater liberty and support from the de facto authorities.

“It is particularly ironic for the Afghan Taliban regime to accuse Pakistan of supporting terrorism while terrorist organizations operating from Afghanistan continue to pose a direct threat to Pakistan and regional security,” Pakistan’s information ministry said.

Militant violence has surged in Pakistan’s northwestern regions near Afghanistan in recent weeks.

A gun-and-bomb assault on a police compound in Kohat on Sept. 18 killed 23 people, including 17 police officers, according to police and counterterrorism officials. A militant faction led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur claimed responsibility for the attack.

On Saturday, the 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.

The violence has coincided with another escalation between Islamabad and Kabul.

Pakistan said on Thursday it had carried out airstrikes against 10 locations in Afghanistan that were being used to launch and store drones after its air defenses detected and neutralized drones launched from Afghan territory a day earlier. Kabul said four civilians were killed in the Pakistani strikes.

Days earlier, Pakistan said separate airstrikes in Afghanistan had killed 28 militants. Afghan authorities said three civilians were killed in those strikes, a toll confirmed by the United Nations.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated sharply since October 2025, when 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.

Pakistan’s information ministry called on Kabul to take “credible and verifiable action” against militant groups operating from Afghan territory.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government has consistently rejected Pakistan’s allegations that it provides sanctuary to anti-Pakistan militants.

With input from AP.