KABUL / PESHAWAR: Following a number of strongly-worded protests from Islamabad, calling on the Taliban regime to prevent militants and terrorists from using Afghan soil to attack Pakistan, Kabul has alleged — for the first time — that several militants from Pakistan have been killed or captured in Afghanistan over the past year.

Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP on Wednesday that in the past year, 18 people “eliminated by our forces in Afghanistan” were Pakistani citizens.

He was expanding on a statement issued late on Tuesday that said the Afghan Taliban should not be blamed for “the security failure of any country in the region”.

A day earlier, Mujahid had asked Islamabad to put its own house in order instead of blaming Afghanistan for allowing militants to use the Afghan soil to carry out attacks inside Pakistan.

In the late night statement, Mujahid said that Pakistani authorities were blaming Afghanistan yet again after recent spate of ‘unfortunate incidents, instead of strengthening their own security system.

“The prevention of attacks inside Pakistan is not our responsibility. This is the responsibility of that country’s intelligence and security apparatus [to stop attacks],” Mujahid said, adding that Afghanistan did not support attacks inside Pakistan, nor would it allow anyone to use its soil for the purpose.

The statement appeared to refer to army chief Gen. Asim Munir’s speech at a grand tribal jirga in Peshawar, on Monday, calling on the Afghan Taliban to respect the Doha agreement and not allow militants of the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to use Afghan soil to carry out attacks in Pakistan.

Gen Munir had said the involvement of Afghan nationals “is detrimental to regional peace, stability and deviation from the Doha Peace Agreement”, referring to the accord that saw US-led forces leave Afghanistan after a 20-year occupation.

Taliban authorities have consistently pledged not to let Afghan territory be used by foreign militants to stage attacks abroad — a key element of the Doha deal.

But this is the first time the Taliban authorities have publicly blamed Pakistanis for attacks in Afghanistan.

Zabihullah Mujahid claimed that the Afghan Taliban had killed 18 Pakistani citizens associated with the militant Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) during several operations in Afghanistan who were involved in attacks in the country and had held dozens of others. “We have all proofs and evidence of this with us,” he added.

“But instead of holding the Pakistani side responsible for this, we strengthened our own defensive system, the result of which by the grace of Almighty Allah is before all,” he said.

He advised common efforts to address the issue of those carrying out attacks both inside Afghanistan as well as Pakistan. “Blaming (each other) is no solution.”

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2023