China's Defence Ministry has rejected accusations of military activity deep inside eastern Afghanistan, after a report by WION last month about regular patrols by Chinese security forces there.

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"Reports in foreign media of Chinese military vehicles patrolling inside Afghanistan do not accord with the facts," Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun told the Reuters news agency.

"In recent years, law enforcement bodies from China and Afghanistan, in accordance with a bilateral cooperation decision on strengthening border law enforcement, arranged to have joint law enforcement operations in border regions," Yang added.

Speaking to Reuters, an unidentified Afghan official in Kabul also denied the reports.

Last month, WION obtained exclusive pictures showing Chinese-manufactured military vehicles in Little Pamir. The slim finger of Afghan territory borders China, Pakistan, Tajikistan and India's Jammu and Kashmir state.

International military analysts backed up the claims.

"The pictures show Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) and Humvee-type vehicles. Both appear to be Chinese versions of common Western armoured vehicles," Justin Bronk, a Senior Analyst at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London, told WION.

From the photographs alone, analysts could not confirm whether the Chinese-manufactured vehicles belong to the China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) itself.

But sources in the area say the PLA enter Little Pamir twice a month through Tajikistan. The troops reportedly stay in a local school in Bozai Gumbaz and are barred from speaking to local Afghan citizens.

The exact motivations behind the patrols are not known but Chinese firms hold key mining concessions across Afghanistan. Control over its western frontier is also a key security concern for the land-focused Chinese military.