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Afghan Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi accused Pakistan on Friday (October 10) of carrying out airstrikes near its borders, calling it a “mistake,” as Islamabad said it was taking action against militants.

Eleven more Pakistani soldiers were killed on Friday in a clash with militants in the Tirah area close to the Afghan border, according to Pakistani security officials. Islamabad says militants of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan group operate from Afghanistan, a charge denied by Kabul.

“In the border areas, which are our remote areas, there have been some attacks. We condemn it. And we consider it a big mistake of the Pakistani government,” Muttaqi told a news conference in New Delhi on Friday.

Muttaqi is on a six-day visit to the Indian capital after getting a temporary exemption on his travel ban. He held talks with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar earlier in the day.

India on Friday upgraded ties with Afghanistan’s Taliban administration, giving a boost to the diplomatically isolated group, by announcing it would reopen its embassy in Kabul that was shut after the Taliban seized power in 2021.

Muttaqi also told reporters that, “Afghanistan will not allow military interventions or military presence of anyone,” in response to US President Donald Trump’s stated aim of taking over the Bagram military base near Kabul, the capital.

“If countries want to have relations with us, then they can come to the diplomatic mission. But we don’t accept them in the military uniform,” he said.

PESHAWAR: Seven policemen and six militants were killed in a late-night attack on a police training center in Pakistan’s restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, police said on Saturday, amid a surge in militancy in the region bordering Afghanistan.

The attack came a day after reports of airstrikes in the Afghan capital, Kabul, that reportedly sought to target Noor Wali Mehsud, chief of the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The TTP initially claimed the assault on the police training center in DI Khan, saying a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the gate before others entered the facility, but later retracted the statement.

Yaqoob Khan, a DI Khan police spokesman, told Arab News the wall of the facility collapsed because of the impact of the blast and killed two policemen, followed by a fierce gunbattle both sides.

“A total of seven policemen were martyred and 13 others injured,” Khan said, adding all six militants were killed. “All 200 trainees and staff at the training center were safely evacuated.”

Pakistan has struggled to contain a surge in militancy in KP in recent years, where militant groups, mainly the TTP, frequently target security forces and have been involved in killings and kidnappings of government officials. This week, at least 12 Pakistani soldiers, including three officers, were killed in separate militant attacks in the region.

Islamabad has frequently blamed the Afghan Taliban for harboring TTP militants, saying the group launches cross-border attacks against its security forces and civilians from the Afghan soil, though Kabul has denied the allegation.

The two countries traded sharp warnings on Friday after Kabul accused Islamabad of violating its airspace and bombing a border town while the Pakistani military vowed to do “whatever is necessary” to defend Pakistan’s territorial integrity.