By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Information Ministry on Monday rejected as fabrications Afghan media reports claiming that Pakistani forces had carried out airstrikes on a university and residential areas in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province.
In a series of statements posted on X, the ministry directly challenged claims by Afghan news outlets, including Tolo News, that Pakistan had targeted Sayed Jamaluddin Afghani University and nearby civilian neighborhoods. The ministry shared screenshots of the Afghan reports and described them as part of a deliberate campaign to deflect attention from the Afghan Taliban’s alleged harboring of militants hostile to Pakistan.
“The Afghan media’s claim was a blatant lie and an attempt to gain sympathy to cover up support provided by Afghan Taliban to Fitna al Khawarij,” the ministry said. Pakistani officials use the term “Fitna al Khawarij” — Arabic for “sedition of the Kharijites,” a reference to historical extremists — as an official designation for the banned Pakistani militant group Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.
The denial comes amid escalating cross-border tensions. Islamabad has repeatedly pressed the Afghan Taliban government to dismantle sanctuaries used by TTP fighters, whom Pakistani officials accuse of launching attacks into Pakistan from Afghan soil. Those appeals, the ministry said, have been ignored. Pakistan launched a military campaign, Operation Ghazab lil-Haq, on the night of Feb. 26 in response to unprovoked cross-border attacks by the Afghan Taliban.
The ministry described the operation’s strikes as “precise and intelligence-based,” insisting that no attack had been carried out on the university. “Pakistan’s targeting is precise and intelligence-based,” the ministry said. “No strike had been carried out on the Sayed Jamaluddin Afghani University. The claims were frivolous and fake.” The ministry portrayed the Afghan reports as following a familiar pattern. “The pattern is a page of the old playbook where Afghan media creates fake news to cover up the support to terrorist groups and proxies like the Fitna al Khawarij and gets amplification from Indian media,” it said. “Truth prevails over falsehood.”
In a separate post, the ministry responded to another social media claim about strikes in Kunar, labeling it “fake propaganda.” It accused the Afghan Taliban regime of relying on misinformation because it has “nothing to offer to its citizens in terms of service, welfare and governance.” “Continuous propaganda around phantom strikes in Kunar by Afghan media and officials backed by the Indian propagandists indicate that the Afghan Taliban regime, having nothing to offer to citizens in terms of service, welfare and governance, only relies on misinformation and hate,” the ministry said.
It went further, charging that the Afghan authorities had learned tactics of “lies and false flag operations” from “Indian propaganda masters.” “Such pathetic antics and vile accusations are absurd,” the ministry added. “It should, however, be clear that as part of Operation Ghazab lil-Haq, whenever and wherever Pakistan strikes the Afghan-based terror infrastructure, it will be as per previous actions, well declared, fully owned and backed by precise evidence of targeting terror support infrastructure.”
The statements show the deep distrust that has long characterized relations between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban, even as both sides share historical and ideological ties. Pakistani officials have grown increasingly frustrated with what they see as Kabul’s unwillingness or inability to curb TTP activity, which has contributed to a surge in militant attacks inside Pakistan in recent years.
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