Don’t Consider Khyber Pakhtunkhwa To Be Pak's Territory, Says Taliban’s Defence Ministry

Inayatullah Khwarizmi, a spokesman for the Taliban's Ministry of Defence, said that the group does not consider Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to be part of Pakistan.

The ministry said in a statement on Saturday that it had attacked points on the other side of the "hypothetical Durand Line".

When asked if the statement referred to Pakistan, Defence Ministry spokesman Inayatullah Khwarizmi said, "We do not consider it to be Pakistani territory, so we cannot confirm that it was on Pakistani soil, but the attack was carried out on the other side of the hypothetical line," Reuters reported.

On Friday, the Taliban attacked targets in North Waziristan and Kurram areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in attacks from Khost and Paktika provinces.

AFP quoted a senior Pakistani border official as saying that at least one Pakistani soldier was killed and seven others were wounded in the attack.

The Taliban's Ministry of Defence announced on Saturday that it had carried out retaliatory attacks about three days after a Pakistani airstrike on Paktika Province.

The defence ministry statement did not specifically mention Pakistan, but said that the strikes had been carried out "beyond the hypothetical Durand Line". The "Durand Line" is a term commonly used by Taliban officials to refer to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.