9 killed, over 40 injured after Afghan forces open fire on border villages in Chaman:
At least nine people were killed and over 40 others injured as Afghan border forces opened fire on security personnel guarding a census team in Balochistan's Chaman area early Friday.
Chaman Civil Hospital's medical superintendent, Dr Akhtar, told DawnNews
that five children and three women were among those killed, whereas
police confirmed that four Frontier Corps (FC) personnel are among the
injured.
Dr Akhtar added that over 40 people had been injured, with five critically wounded victims sent to Quetta for medical treatment.
In a press statement issued Friday afternoon, the Army's
media wing 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.
The
Army said Maj Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza had condemned Afghan forces'
unprovoked firing on Pakistani villagers and security forces while
underlining to his Afghan counterpart that the Pakistani forces and
civilians who had been attacked were well within Pakistani territory
when assaulted.
He also asked the Afghan DGMO to limit their forces to their own side of the border and defuse the situation.
The Chaman border had been closed soon after the hostilities started.
Chaman city was also shut down following the attack,
with shopkeepers shuttering their shops and residents evacuating their
homes in Killi Luqman, Killi Jahangir and Badshah Adda Kahol, Killa
Abdullah's district police officer (DPO), Sajid Mohmand, said.
Security
had also been ramped up in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan
following the cross-border attack, and additional contingents of the
Army and FC had been dispatched to the Pak-Afghan border in Chaman, DawnNews reported, quoting military sources.
The Foreign Office (FO) also summoned the 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 FO said.
The FO 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 to AFP 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.
'Afghanistan was informed of census'
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 military's media
wing said.
FO Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria during a weekly
briefing in Islamabad also confirmed that Afghan authorities had been
informed about the on-going census exercise.
Zakaria said
that the census team "was fulfilling its duties in the area and the
exercise was taking place within the jurisdiction of Pakistan."
The
Kandahar governor's spokesman, Khpalwak, however, claimed that
Pakistani officials had strayed on to the Afghan side of the border and
were attempting to count people living there.
The FO
added that Pakistan the right to retaliate after the exchange of fire,
but said that Pakistan’s efforts for peace in Afghanistan would
continue.
"Dialogue is the only political means available to us to establish peace in Afghanistan," Zakaria said.
Early reports
During the cross-border "attack", mortar shells fired from
the Afghan side had hit houses in a village of Killi Luqman, leaving one
person dead and many others injured, Station House Officer (SHO) Chaman
Maqsood had initially said. At least three children were among the
injured, he had said.
He said the injured were shifted to
the Civil Hospital Chaman, where an emergency has been imposed. Four of
the injured are said to be in critical condition.
One of those slain was identified as 17-year-old Mohammad Ashraf.
"We
were sleeping when we suddenly heard firing and blasts," Haji Ayub, a
resident of Killi Jahangir told DawnNews. "We immediately left our
houses and came to Chaman bazaar."
Abdul Mateen, a
resident of Killi Luqman said FC personnel were guarding the census
staff in his village when the Afghan forces opened fire on them.
"I lost a close relative in the attack," he said.
Exchange of fire at Torkham
Later in the day, an exchange of fire was reported at two
check posts at Torkham Border between Pakistan and Afghan armed forces,
DawnNews reported while quoting military sources.
According
to the details shared by the officials, Afghan forces kept firing at
Iqbal Post and Post II at Torkham Border for at least an hour. Pakistan
also retaliated to the firing, they further claimed.
Meanwhile,
the political administration said that a curfew was implemented in
Khyber Agency following the exchange of fire at Torkham Border.
Tense relations
Pakistan had closed its borders with Afghanistan at Chaman
and Torkham on Feb 18 after a series of terrorist attacks in the country
killed over 100 people. Militants having sanctuaries in Afghanistan
were blamed for the attacks.
After over a month of closure, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had ordered the reopening of the borders as a goodwill gesture.
The
latest violence at Pak-Afghan border has come days after the visits of
two high-profile Pakistani delegations to Afghanistan aimed at easing
the tensions between the neighbouring states.
Speaking to the media upon his return
from Kabul, NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had said that the Afghan leadership
had "promised" that the Afghan president and the country's Chief
Executive Abdullah Abdullah would visit Pakistan.
Earlier this week, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani declined invitations
extended by top civil and military officials to visit Pakistan, saying
he would not visit until Islamabad hands over the perpetrators of terror
attacks in Afghanistan.
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