Afghan cross-border shelling kills 9 Pakistanis including 5 children

Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Photo Central Intelligence Agency

In a setback to confidence-building efforts between uneasy neighbors, Afghan forces from across the border targeted Pakistani security personnel escorting a census team in Balochistan’s Chaman area early Friday.

Reports put the latest death toll at nine with over 40 others injured .

Among those killed, five were children and three women, Chaman Civil Hospital’s medical superintendent, Dr Akhtar confirmed. Police four Frontier Corps (FC) personnel are among the injured.

Doctors say five of the victims are critically wounded and have been hospitalized in Quetta for medical treatment.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Army said the exchange of firing had stopped and Pakistan and Afghan security officials would be meeting on the Chaman crossing for a flag meeting.

The director generals of military operations of both armies also established hotline contact ahead of the flag meeting.

According to the military’s media wing, Maj Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza while condemning the Afghan forces’ unprovoked firing on Pakistani villagers and security forces told his Afghan counterpart that the Pakistani forces and civilians who had been attacked were well within Pakistani territory when they were assaulted.

He also asked the Afghan DGMO to limit their forces to their own side of the border and defuse the situation.

Soon after the hale of fire, the Chaman border was closed. Chaman city was also shut down following the attack, with several shopkeepers shuttering their shops and many residents evacuating their homes in Killi Luqman, Killi Jahangir and Badshah Adda Kahol,

According to Killa Abdullah’s District Police Officer (DPO), Sajid Mohmand, Security had also been beefed up in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan in the wake of the cross-border attack. A Dawn media report said additional contingents of the Army and FC had been dispatched to the Pak-Afghan border in Chaman.

In Islamabad, the Foreign Office summoned Afghan chargé d’ affaires to lodge a protest against the cross-border attack. The chargé d’ affaires was told that the “unprovoked firing by Afghan forces had led to the loss of lives, disrupted the census in areas on the Pakistan side of the border and caused damage to properties.”

A statement released by the Foreign Ministry said. It urged the Afghan government to take action against those responsible for the violation. Samim Khpalwak, spokesman for the governor of Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, in a statement said that one Afghan civilian and three border police forces personnel were also wounded in the exchange of fire. He added that the scuffle was ongoing, with “dozens” of Afghan security forces rushing to the scene.

In Rawalpindi the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) had earlier released a statement saying the Afghan border police opened fire on FC personnel detailed for the security of a census team in Chaman despite the fact that Afghan authorities had been informed in advance about the census exercise in Pakistan and coordination was carried out through diplomatic and military channels.

“Since April 30, Afghan Border Police had been creating hurdles in [the] conduct of census in divided villages of Killi Luqman and Killi Jahangir in Chaman area, on Pakistani side of the border,” the ISPR said.