Outbreak of Pakistan-Afghanistan cross-border shelling kills 7

Pakistan’s military accused Afghan border forces of launching an ‘unprovoked and indiscriminate’ attack targeting civilians, with 17 being wounded

Afghan security sources said the clash began after Pakistani forces demanded Afghan forces stop building a new checkpoint on their side of the border

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People gather near flaming wreckage caused by Afghan Taliban forces’ mortar fire in Pakistan’s border town of Chaman on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:23pm, 12 Dec 2022

Six Pakistani civilians and one Afghan soldier were killed on Sunday in cross-border shelling and gunfire, according to officials on both sides of the frontier.

The Pakistan army said Afghan border forces had launched “unprovoked and indiscriminate fire of heavy weapons including artillery/mortar onto the civilian population” at the Chaman border crossing, which links Pakistan’s western Balochistan province with Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province.

Six civilians were killed and another 17 wounded on the Pakistani side by the Afghan fire, leading Pakistani troops to retaliate, the Pakistan military said in a statement.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the deaths were unfortunate, and “deserve the strongest condemnation”.

People cross into Afghanistan from Pakistan at the border in Chaman earlier this month. The busy border crossing was closed for some hours following the deadly clash. Photo: EPA-EFE

“The Afghan interim government should ensure that such incidents are not repeated,” he said in a statement.

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