Several Afghan soldiers killed in border clashes with Pakistan

Kabul: Several Afghan soldiers including a policeman and a local tribesman were killed in the ongoing clashes with Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Corps near the disputed border Durand Line on Saturday.

A regional Afghan police chief said that the clashes broke out along the Zazi Maidan border district in the southeastern province of Khost adjacent to Kurram as Pakistan initiated firing to force people outside the claimed Pakistan border, reported by Anadolu Agency.

Initially, Afghan National Police interim chief Colonel Abdul Hanan told Anadolu Agency that two Pakistani troops were arrested during the clash.

Pakistan and Afghanistan share a nearly 2,600-kilometer largely porous border. The Pakistani military has recently started constructing a robust fence on the border in its bid to prevent illegal crossings in either direction.

Afghanistan authorities have opposed the plans of fencing the Afghan frontier by Pakistan as the latter dispute the demarcation made during the British era.

Earlier in April, Afghanistan accused Pakistan of conducting the air strikes and firing hundreds of shells in Afghan’s eastern border province of Kunar.

At least two Afghan border security personnel were killed and several others were wounded in the Pakistan initiated attacks.

(ANI)