Taliban rejects Pakistan’s missile strike allegations in phone call with Jaishankar

New Delhi: In a rare high-level engagement, acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mutaki strongly denied Pakistan’s allegations that India launched missile strikes on Afghan soil.

The remarks came during a telephonic conversation with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, which officials said marked the highest-level contact between New Delhi and Kabul since the Taliban took power in August 2021.

Sources said the phone call on Thursday comes ahead of Mutaki’s scheduled visit to Iran and China next week and assumes significant diplomatic weight.

During the conversation, Jaishankar welcomed what he described as Mutaki’s “strong rejection of recent attempts to create mistrust between India and Afghanistan through false and baseless reports.”

The comments appeared to be in response to a Pakistani media report that accused India of hiring the Taliban to conduct a ‘false flag’ operation in Pahalgam.

According to sources, the Taliban side reiterated its condemnation of the Pahalgam attack and denied Pakistan’s claim that Indian missiles had targeted Afghan territory.

The two sides also discussed enhancing bilateral trade, which currently stands at approximately USD 1 billion.

Last week, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had dismissed Pakistan’s accusations, calling them “completely absurd” and “false.”