KABUL - The Taliban-led administration in Kabul has hit back at Pakistan, urging Islamabad to address its domestic security concerns through responsible dialogue rather than levelling what it called unsubstantiated allegations against Afghanistan, Tolo News reported. Speaking in an interview with CNN, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, spokesperson for the Taliban's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said more than 1,100 non-combatants have lost their lives or sustained injuries in Pakistani strikes since early 2022. 'Since early 2022, 1,119 civilians have been killed or injured in these attacks, most of them women and children, including hundreds at a rehabilitation center,' Balkhi said.
Source: Tolo News via ANI, Oct 26
Rana TV, reporting the same CNN interview, said Balkhi also referred to a Pakistani military attack on the Omid Addiction Treatment Centre in Kabul, in which, according to him, hundreds of people were killed. The figures do not specify the separate numbers of those killed and those injured, Rana TV noted - and the toll is a Taliban claim that has not been independently verified.
Source: Rana TV, Oct 25
What is solid
- Balkhi made the 1,119 claim and the 'baseless allegations' call in a CNN interview, reported independently by Tolo News (via ANI) and Rana TV
- Pakistan on October 24 demanded verifiable Taliban action against the TTP, the Balochistan Liberation Army and affiliates using Afghan territory - the demand Balkhi was answering
- Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has separately rejected Pakistan's accusations, saying Kabul has neither the interest nor the capacity to create insecurity in Pakistan
What is only claimed
- The 1,119 toll itself is a Taliban figure: it combines killed and injured without a breakdown, includes the disputed Omid centre claim, and has not been independently verified; Pakistan says its strikes target militants, not civilians
Two accusations, facing opposite ways
'Instead of making baseless allegations, Pakistan should address its security challenges through responsible engagement with its own people and genuine diplomacy with Afghans,' Balkhi said. His rebuke follows the latest round of recurring cross-border hostilities, with the Taliban administration consistently condemning Pakistani military incursions for targeting residential zones. Last month, Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan added to the toll, with three people reportedly killed and several wounded in Kunar and strikes also hitting Paktika province, Tolo News reported.
Source: Tolo News via ANI, Oct 26
Islamabad's position runs the other way: Pakistan alleges that the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Baloch Liberation Army find refuge in Afghanistan - an accusation Kabul denies, attributing Pakistan's insecurity to its own domestic failures. Earlier this month, Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid accused Pakistani authorities of making baseless allegations and sabotaging negotiation processes, saying in a post on X that blaming Afghanistan for Pakistan's internal failures would not resolve Islamabad's problems. With each side now publicly counting its own dead and rejecting the other's account, the contrasting statements leave the neighbours' dispute - and the closed border trade that depends on it - no closer to settlement.
Source: Tolo News via ANI, Oct 26