Afghanistan’s defence ministry said its forces had killed 41 fighters it described as insurgents and captured 62 others in the Kamdesh district of the northeastern province of Nuristan between Sunday and Tuesday.
The ministry said they had crossed in from neighbouring Pakistan, amid repeated clashes along the tense border, says DAWN.
In a statement issued late on Tuesday night, the ministry said the insurgents included members of the Islamic State group and had entered Afghanistan “with the support” of Pakistan.
There was no immediate comment from Islamabad, but its Ministry of Information has rejected similar claims in the past.
The claims could not be independently confirmed.
Both sides have made claims in recent weeks of killing fighters on the other side.
Tension between the two countries has been spiralling, with cross-border fighting and Pakistani air strikes adding to long-standing disputes over militant activity along the frontier.
The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan said last week that it had documented more than 1,100 civilian deaths and injuries in Afghanistan from cross-border violence so far this year.
The Afghan ministry issued a warning in the same statement.
“Ministry of Defense’s security and defense forces will not permit anyone to undermine security in the country,” it said.
“If anyone attempts to do so again, they will face an even greater response.”
Separately, Afghanistan’s foreign ministry said it had summoned Pakistan’s chargé d’affaires on Tuesday and handed him a letter of protest over “the crossing of disruptive armed elements” across the border.
It accused Islamabad of harbouring recruitment and training camps for fighters it then sends into Afghanistan.
Pakistan frequently accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of allowing the Pakistani Taliban, formally known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), to operate from Afghan territory and carry out attacks inside Pakistan.
The TTP is separate from Afghanistan’s Taliban but allied with it.
Kabul denies giving the group a safe haven and has rejected Pakistan’s accusations.
Kabul, for its part, accuses Pakistan of fomenting unrest within Afghanistan.
The defence ministry recently accused Islamabad of training fighters and sending them across the border.
It said they were former members of the military that served under the previous government, which was ousted when the Taliban seized power in 2021.
Afghanistan does not recognise its frontier with Pakistan as an international border.
The two countries share a boundary of more than 2,600 kilometres (1,620 miles), known as the Durand Line.
