Islamabad: At least one person was killed and over a dozen were injured on Thursday when Afghan border troops resorted to “indiscriminate firing” across the border into Balochistan province, Pakistani defence sources said, the second such incident in less than a week.
According to the sources, the firing took place in Balochistan province’s Chaman area, and “children and women” were also injured.
Dr Abdul Malik of District Headquarters Hospital Chaman told Pakistani media that at least 15 injured civilians were brought to the facility.
Deputy Commissioner of Chaman Abdul Hameed Zehri told the media that one person was killed and a dozen others were injured in the firing incident .
He said the injured have been shifted to a hospital.
Zehri said the firing began from the Afghan side of the border town which is an important trade post between the two countries.
However, in a statement, the Afghan defence ministry accused Pakistan of initiating the skirmish, adding that Kabul considers dialogue as the only logical way to resolve problems.
The fresh incident comes just four days after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the unprovoked firing by Afghan Border Forces on civilians in Chaman on Sunday in which seven people were killed and 16 others were injured.
The Pakistan foreign office and defense minister Khawaja Asif later said the interim Afghan government had apologised for the incident and the matter had been resolved.
The Chaman border crossing, also known as Friendship Gate, connects Balochistan province to Afghanistan’s Kandahar. 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.
Last week’s standoff at the border came barely 24 hours after authorities in Pakistan said that its counterterrorism forces had intercepted four Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-K) militants close to the Afghan border and killed them.
Last month, eight people, including two children and three paramilitary soldiers, were injured in the Kurram district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province when some Afghans from across the border opened fire at them over a dispute.
Pakistan and Afghanistan share a 2,600-km volatile border.
Islamabad has completed almost 90 per cent of fencing work along the border despite protests from Kabul, who contested the century-old British-era boundary demarcation that splits families on either side.
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