Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said claims made by Pakistani officials linking Afghanistan to the attack on a police station in Bannu were unfounded.

“The Afghan government considers the recent statements by Pakistani officials, which claimed that the attack on the police station in Bannu was planned in Afghanistan, baseless,” Mujahid said in a statement posted on X.

The response came after Pakistani authorities blamed Afghanistan-based militants for the suicide bombing and subsequent assault on a police checkpoint in Bannu, an area near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan that has seen a resurgence of militant violence.

The attack, one of the deadliest against Pakistani security forces this year, intensified tensions between Islamabad and Kabul, which have repeatedly traded accusations over cross-border militancy.

Pakistan has accused militant groups operating from Afghan territory of orchestrating attacks inside Pakistan since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021.

The Taliban administration has consistently denied harboring militants targeting neighboring countries and has argued that Pakistan’s security challenges are an internal matter.

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated sharply in recent months, including military confrontations earlier this year after Pakistan launched airstrikes inside Afghanistan targeting what it described as militant hideouts.

The Taliban condemned those strikes as violations of Afghan sovereignty.