The Pakistan army said Afghan border forces killed six civilians across the border in Pakistan on Sunday (December 11). As reported by local media outlets, the military also said that over a dozen were injured in the heavy gunfire and artillery shelling.
Apart from the civilian casualties on the Pakistan side, one Afghan soldier was killed in the cross-border shelling and gunfire, officials from both sides stated.
As per the Pakistan army, Afghan border forces had opened “unprovoked and indiscriminate fire of heavy weapons including artillery/mortar onto the civilian population” at the Chaman border crossing.
The Pakistani statement said: “Pakistani border troops have given befitting albeit measured response against the uncalled for aggression, but avoided targeting innocent civilians in the area.
“Pakistan has also approached Afghan authorities at Kabul to highlight (the) severity of the situation and demanded strict action to obviate any such recurrence of the incident in future,” it added.
Chaman border crossing links Pakistan’s western Balochistan province with Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province.
According to a senior provincial government official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, the clash occurred after Afghan forces attempted to cut a section of the border fence.
As quoted by the news agency Reuters, a local resident Asad Rehman, said: “There was fighting going on between the Taliban and the Pakistani forces. A shell came from the other (Afghan) side, and the vehicle over there caught fire. They are now trying to douse the fire. Several people are wounded. We heard that some people were martyred also.”
On the other hand, a police spokesperson in Kandahar province confirmed the clash at the border but provided no further details. A Taliban member was killed, and ten people were injured, including three civilians, according to a provincial governor’s spokesman.
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