Taliban Says 58 Pakistani Soldiers Killed In Border Clashes, Accuses Islamabad Of Sheltering ISIS

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, said that Afghan Taliban forces killed at least 58 Pakistani soldiers in cross-border clashes. (IMAGE: AFP FILE/REPRESENTATIVE)

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban regime’s spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid on Sunday announced that overnight clashes along the Durand Line, aka Afghanistan-Pakistan border, led to the deaths of 58 Pakistani soldiers and injured 30 others.

Zabihullah Mujahid also accused Islamabad of providing shelter to violent hardline terrorist group, the Islamic State, using state apparatus and demanded that these terrorists, who pose a threat to many countries, be handed over to Kabul.

The spokesperson said that new centers harbouring ISIS terrorists were established in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after the Taliban cleared “its territory of seditionists”.

“New people were brought to these centers for training from Karachi and Islamabad airports,” Mujahid said and then went on to claim that “attacks in Tehran and Moscow were planned from these centers” and the same centers are being used for planning attacks against Afghanistan.

“Pakistan should expel the important ISIS members who are hiding there from its soil or hand them over to the Islamic Emirate. The ISIS group poses a threat to many countries of the world, including Afghanistan,” he said.

The local branch of Islamic State, Islamic State (Khorasan), carries out periodic attacks and remains a threat to Taliban rule and the wider region.

The UN warned in July of a “permissive environment for a range of terrorist groups… posing a serious threat to the security of Central Asian and other countries”.

It said the most serious threat is from the Islamic State, with 2,000 fighters, who have carried out deadly attacks in Russia and Iran in the past few years.

The Khorasan faction of the Islamic State has been targeting security forces, Sufi and Shia gatherings and minority communities in Pakistan but Pakistan Army has failed to act, with the Taliban indicating recently that the group finds support from Islamabad.

Referring to the overnight clashes, Mujahid said that operation, launched to retaliate against Pakistan Air Force’s strikes on Kabul, were stopped at the request of Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

“Afghanistan has the right to defend its air and land borders and will not leave any attack unanswered,” he added.

He added that in this operation, a significant amount of weapons also fell into the hands of the Islamic Emirate forces and that around 20 of its members were either dead or injured in the skirmishes.