By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani troops and Afghan forces exchanged fire late on Friday along their tense shared border, with each side accusing the other of initiating the clash in violation of a fragile cease-fire that has held for the past two months.
No casualties or damage were immediately reported from the incident near the Chaman border crossing, a key transit route, though a medical superintendent at the district hospital in Chaman later said that three injured people, including a woman, had been brought to the facility.
The skirmish came a day after Pakistan announced it would allow the United Nations to send relief supplies into Afghanistan through the Chaman and Torkham border crossings, which have been mostly closed for nearly two months amid escalating tensions. It also followed two days after a Saudi-backed new round of peace talks between the South Asian neighbours ended without a breakthrough, though both sides agreed to continue their fragile cease-fire.
Mohammad Sadiq, a local police official, said the shooting started from the Afghan side and Pakistani troops returned fire near the Chaman border crossing. In Kabul, the spokesman for the Afghan Taliban government, Zabihullah Mujahid, accused Pakistan of initiating the exchange. “Unfortunately, this evening, the Pakistani side once again launched attacks on Afghanistan in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar, forcing the forces of the Islamic Emirate to respond,” Mujahid wrote on X.
Abidullah Farooqi, a spokesman for the Afghan border police, said the Pakistani forces first lobbed a hand grenade into the Spin Boldak border area on the Afghan side, prompting a response. He said Afghanistan remains committed to the cease-fire.
Mosharraf Zaidi, a spokesman for Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, said on X that earlier in the evening, the “Afghan Taliban regime resorted to unprovoked firing along the Chaman border.” “Pakistan remains fully alert and committed to ensuring its territorial integrity and the safety of our citizens.”
A senior official in Quetta confirmed that the exchange of fire started at around 10 pm and continued till late at night. There were also reports of fighting on the Chaman-Kandahar highway, but these could not be immediately verified. The medical superintendent of Chaman district hospital, Muhammad Owais, said that three injured, including a woman, were brought to the medical facility.
Negotiations between Kabul and Islamabad aimed at easing border tensions and upholding the truce broke down in November, but the cease-fire, brokered by Qatar in October, has mostly held. The talks in Saudi Arabia last weekend were the latest in a series of meetings hosted by Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia aimed at cooling tensions following deadly border clashes in October.
Tensions spiked after those clashes in October killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants, and wounded hundreds more on both sides. The violence erupted after explosions in Kabul, the Afghan capital, on Oct. 9 that the Taliban government blamed on Pakistan and vowed to avenge. The fighting was the worst between the neighbours in recent years. The Qatar-mediated cease-fire eased the tensions somewhat but subsequent peace talks in Istanbul failed to produce an agreement.
At the heart of the dispute, Islamabad says Afghan-based militants have carried out recent attacks in Pakistan, including suicide bombings involving Afghan nationals. Kabul denies the charge, saying it cannot be held responsible for security inside Pakistan.
Pakistan has blamed most of the militant attacks inside the country on Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. Though separate from the Afghan Taliban, the T.T.P. is closely allied with it, and many of its fighters are believed to have taken refuge in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power there in 2021, further straining relations.
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