ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has rejected an Afghan Ministry of Defense claim that a Pakistani post near Spin Boldak was destroyed and that Afghan forces suffered no casualties, calling the account “fake and fabricated.”
The ministry’s fact check comes after Pakistani security sources said an attempted Afghan aggression in the Gulistan sector of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border was thwarted during the night of September 24-25. Pakistan said its forces responded to the attempted incursion and inflicted casualties on Afghan Taliban personnel.
According to the Information Ministry, at least 13 Afghan Taliban personnel were killed and several others injured during the engagement and the subsequent action against opposing Taliban positions.
The ministry said the Afghan claim that no casualties were suffered was contradicted by the “actual facts” of the border engagement.
It also released visuals of the incident, saying they had already been widely circulated and showed the border engagement and the subsequent action against Afghan Taliban positions.
The fact check said the attempted aggression was thwarted after Pakistani security forces mounted a timely response, while the engagement was followed by action against Taliban posts.
Intermittent exchanges of fire between Pakistani security forces and the Afghan Taliban were also reported in the Gulistan sector, with Pakistani forces maintaining heightened alert along the border, according to security sources.
The Information Ministry said the Afghan Ministry of Defense’s account was an attempt to dismiss Pakistan’s response as propaganda, while Pakistan maintained that its forces had successfully thwarted the attempted aggression.
The fact check comes amid Pakistan’s latest military response to drone aggression from Afghan territory. The ministry said Pakistan’s air defenses neutralized the intruding drones before they reached their targets, after which precision aerial and drone strikes destroyed terrorist hideouts and support infrastructure, including drone launching and storage sites, across 10 locations in Afghanistan. Islamabad said the targets were linked to terrorist attacks inside Pakistan and the attempted drone incursions.
The ministry concluded its fact check with the message: “Truth prevails over falsehood.”