Pakistan says Afghan intelligence coercing video confessions to shift terror blame

Pakistan's state wire service reported on Wednesday that Afghanistan's General Directorate of Intelligence has been recording coerced video statements from detained Afghan nationals, in what it described as a campaign to pin terrorism on Pakistan.

The Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) report, which cited sources it did not name, said the detainees are made to claim membership of Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) or of anti-Taliban resistance groups, and to say they received combat training at "covert bases inside Pakistan" for operations against the Taliban administration. No detainee, official or document was named, and the report carried no response from Kabul.

The Express Tribune also published a report on the same accusation, under a headline saying Afghan intelligence had been accused of orchestrating a disinformation campaign against Pakistan.

According to APP, the staged statements are meant to deflect international pressure over the Taliban administration's failure to shut down militant sanctuaries on Afghan soil. The report said the videos would be presented to regional neighbours (Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Iran) and circulated on social media, and that senior Taliban officials had been briefed to cite the coerced statements in media interactions and international briefings.

APP further reported that analysts quoted in its account saw the campaign as aimed at regional security concerns, particularly Russia's focus on the ISKP threat, and as an attempt by Kabul to escape accountability for its counter-terrorism commitments.

The report did not say when the statements were recorded or when they would be released, gave no detail on how the alleged coercion was established, and did not identify which Pakistani officials had been briefed on the matter. Neither account quoted a named Pakistani official or carried comment from the Afghan administration in Kabul.

Skardu Times could not independently verify the claims, which rest on sources the state news agency did not identify.