One killed in fresh cross-border clashes between Pakistan, Afghanistan’s Taliban

By Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: At least one person was killed and 16 others wounded on Thursday as fresh clashes broke out between Pakistani and Afghan forces in less than a week at Chaman-Spin Boldak border crossing in Baluchistan, officials said.

Women and children were among the injured. Pakistani and Taliban officials accused the other of initiating the latest conflict.

Pakistani officials said their forces were repairing a damaged part of the border fence when Taliban authorities interrupted them and eventually started shelling civilian settlements just across the border.

They said mortar shells fired by the Taliban hit a truck near Chaman. They accused the Afghan Taliban forces of intentionally targeting the civilian population.

Later, the officials said the fire had subsided and that Pakistani authorities were in contact with Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to prevent further escalation.

Afghanistan’s ministry of defence said in a post on Twitter that Pakistani forces had opened fire first, and called for a resolution of the issue through negotiations.

“Unfortunately, today there was another shooting by Pakistani soldiers in Spin Boldak … and it’s caused clashes,” the Taliban defense ministry said in a statement, naming the Afghan side of the Chaman crossing.

It stressed the need for solving problems through dialogue, warning that “negative actions and making excuses for war are not in the interest of any of the parties.”

“Negative actions and creating excuses for war will benefit no one,” the ministry said.

Last week nine civilians killed when Afghan border troops resorted to unprovoked and indiscriminate fire across the border into the same area, the military then said.

Pakistan and Afghanistan share a 2,600-km volatile border.

The Chaman border crossing also known as Friendship Gate connects Balochistan to Afghanistan’s Kandahar. It is one of the busiest crossings between the two countries and a key trade route.

It was closed last month after an armed Afghan crossed onto Pakistan’s side of the border and opened fire on security troops, killing a soldier and injuring another two. Islamabad has completed almost 90 percent of the fencing work along the border.

Since the Afghan Taliban took over Afghanistan in August last year, relations between the two neighbours have been tense.