According to the Pakistani military, deadly cross-border firing by Afghan Taliban troops at a Pakistani border town on Sunday resulted in the deaths of seven people. This comes at a time when ties between the two neighboring nations continue to deteriorate.
The violence that has broken out in Chaman, which is located in the southwestern part of Pakistan, comes after a slew of violent occurrences and assaults that have increased tensions between Islamabad and the Taliban overlords in Afghanistan. The Chaman checkpoint is the most important commercial crossing between the two nations.
According to the officials, the bridge was made available to the public early Monday morning.
The Pakistani army's wing first reported that six people had died as a result of Sunday's bombardment, but the number of fatalities eventually increased to seven. "Unprovoked and indiscriminate firing" from heavy weapons by Afghan troops on civilians, according to the Afghan army, resulted in the wounding of sixteen more people. The Afghan army attributed the casualties to the incident.
A spokesperson for Kandahar's governor in Afghanistan, Ataullah Zaid, seemed to connect the battles between Pakistani and Taliban troops with the erection of new checkpoints on the Afghan side of the border. These clashes took place on the Pakistani side of the border.
According to him, one of the Taliban fighters was killed while ten more were injured. He also said that three bystanders received injuries.
The Pakistani military said that its forces responded to fire from Afghanistan but did not provide any additional information. It was reported that Pakistan had spoken with officials in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, to emphasize how serious the situation at the border was.
Earlier, Akhtar Mohammad, a physician working at a government-run hospital in Chaman, told The Associated Press that a total of 27 people were injured by live rounds and were transported to the hospital for treatment. According to him, seven of them were in really grave condition.
Wali Mohammad, a local who lives on the Pakistani side of the border, transported his injured relative to the medical facility in Chaman. According to him, there were a series of explosions, which were then followed by heavy gunfire.
Mohammad explained what happened next: "We were out on the street like it was any other day off when suddenly, we heard a tremendous explosion, and debris struck several people, including one of my cousins."
On Monday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took to Twitter to criticize the Taliban, stating that the Afghan Interim Government should take steps to guarantee that instances of this kind do not occur again.
The Chaman border was closed for eight days in November after a tragic shooting, which resulted in significant financial losses for businesses and left thousands of travelers trapped on both sides of the border.
At the end of the previous month, the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul was the target of gunfire. Authorities from Pakistan have described the event as an assault on their ambassador there and have placed the responsibility for the security breach on Taliban officials. Islamabad has also said that the leaders of Afghanistan are providing a haven to terrorists who carry out lethal assaults on Pakistani land.
