By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Calm returned to the volatile border crossing at Chaman between Pakistan and Afghanistan on Saturday, a day after heavy clashes erupted between security forces on both sides, killing at least five people on the Afghan side and injuring three civilians on the Pakistani side, according to officials, in a fresh escalation that highlighted the deepening rift between the two neighbours.
The fighting broke out late Friday night, with mortar shells and gunfire exchanged across the frontier, officials from both countries said. At least three civilians on the Pakistani side were wounded and taken to the district hospital in Chaman, local authorities said. On the Afghan side, five people were killed, including four civilians and a Taliban member, according to Afghan officials.
Pakistani officials said Afghan forces initiated the violence by firing mortar shells into the Badani area, prompting a retaliatory response from the security forces. But Afghan Taliban officials offered a sharply contrasting account, insisting that Pakistan had launched an unprovoked attack on the town of Spin Boldak. Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, said in a statement that Pakistani forces had struck first and that Taliban fighters were merely responding to defend their territory. Hamdullah Fitrat, the Afghan Taliban’s deputy spokesman, told Reuters that shelling had killed five people, including a Taliban member.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif described the Afghan actions as “unprovoked firing” along the Chaman border. In a post on X early Saturday morning, Mosharraf Zaidi wrote: “A short while ago, the Afghan Taliban regime resorted to unprovoked firing along the Chaman border. An immediate, befitting & intense response has been given by our armed forces.” “Pakistan remains fully alert & committed to ensuring its territorial integrity & the safety [of] our citizens,” he added.
A senior official in Quetta confirmed that the exchange of fire began around 10 pm and continued into the late hours of the night.The skirmish is the latest flare-up in a series of border confrontations that have strained relations between Islamabad and Kabul, coming amid the collapse of negotiations aimed at easing tensions. The two sides have held multiple rounds of talks in recent weeks in locations including Doha, Istanbul and Saudi Arabia, but those efforts have yielded no breakthroughs.
Border clashes first erupted on Oct. 11, exacerbating longstanding frictions over cross-border terrorism. Pakistan has repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban government of harboring militants from the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, which has launched attacks inside Pakistan. Islamabad has demanded that Kabul take decisive action to curb such activities.
A day before the latest clash, a spokesman for Pakistan’s Foreign Office reiterated the country’s willingness to engage in talks with Afghanistan. But the diplomatic process has faltered repeatedly. Soon after the Oct. 11 clashes, a temporary ceasefire was brokered on Oct. 15, leading to initial discussions in Doha. Those talks produced a fragile truce, with both sides agreeing to reconvene in Istanbul to develop mechanisms for lasting peace and stability.
The second round of negotiations began in the Turkish capital on Oct. 25. But on Oct. 29, Pakistan’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, announced in a post on X that the talks “failed to bring about any workable solution.” Mediators from Turkey and Qatar stepped in, helping to keep the process alive. On Oct. 31, Turkey released a joint statement saying that “further modalities of the implementation will be discussed and decided” during a principal-level meeting in Istanbul on Nov. 6. Yet the third round, held on Nov. 7, ended in deadlock.
Pakistan’s defence minister, Khawaja Asif, said the talks addressing cross-border terrorism were “over” and had “entered an indefinite phase” as negotiators failed to bridge deep differences between the two sides. In the aftermath, the Afghan Taliban suspended trade ties with Pakistan. Islamabad had already closed its border for trade shortly after the initial clashes in October, further disrupting economic links between the two countries.
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
