wish to ingore .htaccess restrictions during ajax page include

wish to ingore .htaccess restrictions during ajax page include

I am not .htaccess expert, however over time I've built one from various
posts that works.
This section RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-s
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?path=$1 [QSA,L]
Causes all pages go through index.php. That works fine. However, it is
forcing at least one of my ajax pages to go through index.php which is not
desirable. Does anyone know how I can limit this .htaccess code to only
effect during the initial site visit and not ajax loads ?
Thanks.