ISLAMABAD: Pakistan issued a demarche to the Afghan embassy in Islamabad over what it described as Afghanistan’s violation of Pakistani airspace last week, the Pakistani foreign ministry said on Monday, amid heightened tensions between the two countries.

Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have once again flared up following a militant attack on a police compound in Pakistan’s northwestern Kohat district that killed 23 people, including 17 police personnel and six civilians, on Sept. 18.

Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Afghanistan last Monday, saying it had killed 28 militants. The Taliban said Pakistan airstrikes had killed three civilians. Islamabad struck 10 more locations in Afghanistan on Thursday after Islamabad said drones had entered Pakistani airspace from Afghanistan.

“The last demarche Ministry of Foreign Affairs delivered to Afghan side was on account [of] air space violation by drones on 23rd September,” Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Sajjad Haider Khan told Arab News on Monday.

The statement came a day after Kabul said its forces had killed 28 fighters and captured 32 others in northeastern Nuristan province, alleging that several Daesh-affiliated groups had been sent with Pakistani support to carry out attacks in Afghanistan. Islamabad denied involvement and said 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 Oct. 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.