At least one Pakistani paramilitary soldier was killed and seven others injured in exchanges of fire with Afghan forces in the border region, a Pakistani security source told AFP on Saturday.
Clashes, sometimes involving heavy weapons, broke out overnight between the Pakistani province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the Afghan region of Khost, officials from both countries reported. This episode comes four days after Pakistani airstrikes killed 46 people, the majority of them civilians, in eastern Afghanistan, according to Kabul.
Islamabad has not confirmed having carried out these raids but admits to carrying out operations in border areas to “protect Pakistanis from terrorist groups”. “A soldier from the Frontier Corps (paramilitary organization) was declared dead and seven others were injured,” a senior Pakistani security official at the border reported on Saturday.
According to him, clashes took place in at least two places in the Pakistani district of Kourram. An official in the Afghan province of Khost told AFP that violence early Saturday had forced residents to leave the area, but that no casualties were reported on their side.
Islamabad claims that armed groups, such as the Pakistani Taliban, carry out planned attacks from Afghan soil, across a very porous border, which the Taliban authorities deny. According to a July UN Security Council report, around 6,500 Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighters are based in Afghanistan, where they are tolerated and supported by the Afghan Taliban who provide them with weapons and allow them to train.
A Pakistani official told AFP that Tuesday’s strikes targeted “terrorist hideouts” in Afghanistan and killed at least 20 Pakistani Taliban. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Manua) called for an investigation, while the UN children’s agency, Unicef, said it had been informed of the death of at least 20 children.
“We want to have good relations with them (Kabul) but the TTP must be stopped from killing our innocent people,” Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told a government meeting on Friday. “This is our red line.”
At least one Pakistani paramilitary soldier was killed and seven others injured in exchanges of fire with Afghan forces in the border region, a Pakistani security source told AFP on Saturday.
Clashes, sometimes involving heavy weapons, broke out overnight between the Pakistani province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the region…
