As fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan escalated into rare, bloody combat this month, Islamabad pointed fingers at another adversary, accusing India of fuelling the conflict.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that New Delhi had "incited" the Afghan Taliban, while his Defence Minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, described Kabul as acting like a "proxy of India".

Existential archrivals, Pakistan and India have fought repeated wars since partition cleaved the subcontinent at the end of British rule in 1947.

They have also long swapped claims of stoking militancy in each other's territory as part of alleged destabilisation campaigns.

But in recent months, Islamabad has warily watched India cosy up to Taliban-governed Afghanistan, even as its own relations with Kabul sharply d

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