By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office has summoned Afghanistan’s Chargé d’Affaires on Friday to issue a ‘strong condemnation’ of the recent border clashes at Chaman-Spin Boldak area that both sides blame on each other.
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.
“Afghan Chargé d’Affaires in Islamabad was called into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Pakistan’s strong condemnation over recent incidents of unprovoked cross-border shelling by Afghan Border Security Forces in the Chaman-Spin Boldak area,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
It added that the shelling resulted in loss of life, injuries and damage to property.
Pakistani officials earlier 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.
Afghanistan’s ministry of defence however said 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.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry said the country impressed upon Afghanistan that the recurrence of such incidents must be prevented. “… both sides are responsible for the protection of civilians.”
“It was agreed to use established institutional mechanisms in this regard,” the statement said.
The foreign minister said Pakistan remains committed to maintaining “fraternal relations” with Afghanistan. “Peace along the Pak-Afghan border is intrinsic to this end.”
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.
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