MONITORING (SW) – Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has strongly condemned the deadly exchange of fire at the Chaman crossing point with Afghanistan and called on the interim government in Kabul to ensure that such incidents were not repeated in the future, reported Dawn news.
At least seven people lost their lives and 16 others suffered injuries on Sunday in Chaman when it came under “unprovoked and indiscriminate” heavy gunfire and artillery shelling by Afghan border forces, according to the Pakistani military’s media affairs wing.
The incident has been widely condemned across the political divide in Pakistan, with PM Shehbaz’s among the latest denunciations.
In a tweet on Monday, PM Shehbaz said the “unprovoked shelling and fire by Afghan Border Forces at Chaman, resulting in [the] martyrdom of several Pakistani citizens and injuring more than a dozen, is unfortunate and deserves the strongest condemnation”.
The incident was reported on Sunday evening by Pakistan army’s media affairs wing, the ISPR.
Later, unnamed officials told Dawn that an exchange of fire had taken place between Pakistani and Afghan troops on Sunday when some people from the Afghan side tried to cut a fence near the border village of Lala Mohammad, which resulted in the closing of the Friendship Gate at the Chaman border crossing. However, after half an hour, the border was reopened for traffic and pedestrians, they added.
A short while later, the officials said, Afghan forces started firing between Shoukat and Ilyas Pakistani border posts, prompting a response from Pakistani troops. Afghan troops then started using artillery and mortar shells, targeting civilian settlements, they added.
According to them, some mortar shells had landed on a road leading to the border area and the Nato market in the area.
BBC Urdu said videos received from Chaman city showed a cloud of dust after a shell fell on the border road near the city. The report said citizens could be heard saying that mortar shells were landing in the area in the videos.
In Afghanistan, a spokesman for Kandahar’s governor, Ataullah Zaid, appeared to link the clashes with the construction of new checkpoints on the Afghan side of the border, the AP news agency reported.
Separately, he told local media in Chaman by phone that one Afghan security man was killed and 13 people were injured, including 10 soldiers and three civilians.
The crossing was also closed for several days last month after similar violence.
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