One Pakistani militia soldier was killed and seven others injured in a cross-border gunfight with Afghan forces, security officials said on Saturday. Meanwhile, hundreds of Afghans demonstrated against Pakistan’s deadly airstrikes last Tuesday that sparked the clashes.
Officials from both countries reported sporadic fighting, including the use of heavy weapons, between border troops overnight along the border separating Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province from Afghanistan’s Ghost Province.
The gunfights followed accusations by Afghan Taliban authorities that Pakistan carried out airstrikes near the border in Paktika province this week, killing 46 people, mostly women and children.
Pakistan’s top security official suggested they targeted a “terrorist hideout”, but Islamabad has not officially acknowledged the shelling.
A senior border security official told AFP that clashes had occurred in at least two locations in Pakistan’s Kurram border area, adding: “One Frontier Corps (FC) soldier was reported killed and seven others injured. “I’m here,” he said.
Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense told X news agency that “several points” across the Pakistan border “were the targets of retaliation where attacks in Afghanistan were organized.”
Officials in Khost province told AFP that residents had been evacuated from the border area due to the clashes, but Afghan forces reported no casualties.
Hundreds of Afghans staged a protest in the provincial capital Khost city on Saturday against Pakistan, demanding accountability for civilian casualties.
Protester Najibullah Zaland expressed his desire for global economic pressure on Pakistan to prevent such incidents.
“We have gathered here today to raise our voices to the world,” he told AFP. “We have to pave the way for peace, otherwise young people will not be silent.”
Demonstrators support Afghan forces, demonstrator Rashidullah Hamdard said: “Our fighters have reacted strongly to them and we support the army.”
“We demand from the world that Pakistan’s military be held accountable for this cruel and senseless attack,” Hamdar said.
– “Red Line” –
These attacks represent the latest escalation in border tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which have escalated since the Taliban took over in 2021.
Islamabad claimed that Kabul authorities were harboring militants who could attack Pakistani territory with impunity, a claim the Taliban disputed.
Border clashes have escalated since March when Pakistani forces carried out deadly airstrikes on the Afghan border, which Taliban officials said killed eight civilians.
UNAMA called for an investigation into “credible reports” of civilian deaths, but UNICEF regional director Sanjay Wijesekera wrote on X: “Children are not and should never be targeted.”
The attack follows TTP claims that it attacked a military outpost near the Afghan border, with Pakistan reporting 16 soldiers killed.
“We want good relations with them (Kabul), but the killing of innocent people by the TTP must stop,” Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a cabinet address on Friday.
“This is a red line for us not to cross,” he added.
Pakistan has faced an increase in militant activity in its western border areas since the Taliban’s takeover by Afghanistan. In 2024, the military recorded the deaths of 383 soldiers and 925 militants in various conflicts.
