The Pakistani military on Wednesday said it shot down four rudimentary drones launched from Afghanistan, while Kabul claimed it "successfully" targeted alleged Daesh camps inside Pakistan.
The developments come amid the latest tensions between the two neighbours following a terrorist attack on a security facility in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi and subsequent air strikes by Islamabad targeting terrorist hideouts inside Afghanistan last week.
In a statement, the Pakistan army said its air defence network "immediately" detected and neutralised the hostile aerial platforms launched by Afghan security forces on Tuesday in the southwestern Balochistan province "as part of their patronisation and support of terrorist outfits operating from inside their controlled territories."
"If the Afghan Taliban continue to provoke Pakistan, they would receive a befitting response which would cost them heavily," the statement added.
A deputy spokesperson for the interim Taliban government’s defence ministry, Sadeequllah Nasrat, said the air force carried out air strikes on alleged Daesh camps inside Balochistan and the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, inflicting "heavy casualties and material losses" on the terrorist group.
In a statement posted on X, Nasrat said the air strikes were carried out with "great precision" and resulted in no civilian casualties.
Relations between the two neighbours have been strained following multiple terrorist attacks in Pakistan in recent years, which have led to several border clashes.
Islamabad accuses Kabul of allowing terrorists to use its territory. Afghanistan denies the allegation.
