ISLAMABAD: Pakistan summoned a senior Afghan diplomat on Friday over repeated cross-border clashes in which at least six people have been killed and more than a dozen wounded.
Border tensions between the South Asian neighbours have risen since the Taliban returned to power last year, with Pakistan alleging militant groups were planning attacks from Afghan soil.
“Afghan Chargi d’Affaires in Islamabad was called to the foreign ministry and Pakistan’s strong condemnation was conveyed over recent incidents of unprovoked cross-border shelling resulting in a loss of life, injuries and damage to property,” a foreign ministry statement said on Friday.
“It was reiterated that protection of civilians remained the responsibility of both sides and that recurrence of these incidents must be prevented,” it said.
Pakistan military’s media wing said on Sunday “unprovoked fire” near the southern town of Chaman in Balochistan over the weekend killed six people and wounded more than a dozen.
The clash happened after Afghan forces tried to cut part of the fence on the border, according to a senior provincial government official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.
A Taliban member was killed and 10 people wounded, including three civilians, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Kandahar province on the other side of the border said, without giving further details.
Pakistani minister of defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif told the National Assembly that Kabul had later apologised for the incident, local media reported, but clashes erupted again on Thursday.
Senior officials near the border who asked not to be identified said one person was killed and 14 wounded.
Thousands cross the border between Spin Boldak, Afghanistan, and Chaman, Pakistan, every day, including traders, Afghans seeking medical treatment in Pakistan, and people visiting relatives.
Last month, a gunman shot dead a Pakistani security guard at the Chaman border crossing, leading to its closure for a week.
A security guard was also wounded by shots fired at Pakistan’s embassy in the Afghan capital this month in what Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called “an assassination attempt” on the head of the mission.
The Taliban deny harbouring Pakistani militants but are also infuriated by a fence Islamabad is putting up along the 2,700-kilometre (1,675 miles) border.
Pakistan’s state minister for foreign affairs Hina Rabbani Khar visited Kabul last month to discuss relations with Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers.
No country has recognised the Taliban government and visits by foreign diplomats - let alone high-profile women - are rare.
