Days After Pakistani Airstrikes, Many Pak Soldier Die in Confrontations with Afghan Troops

 

Days After Pakistani Airstrikes, Soldier Dies in Confrontations with Afghan Troops 

Intermittent combat, featuring heavy artillery, erupted during the night among border forces situated at the junction of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan and Khost province in Afghanistan.

On Saturday, a security source reported that a Pakistani paramilitary soldier lost his life and seven more sustained injuries during exchanges of gunfire with forces from Afghanistan, as hundreds of Afghans rallied against the lethal airstrikes that ignited the confrontations.

According to officials from both nations, intermittent combat, inclusive of considerable weaponry, flared up overnight between border personnel along the frontier involving Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan and Khost province in Afghanistan.

The gunfire exchanges followed accusations from Afghanistan's Taliban government, alleging that Pakistan had killed 46 individuals, primarily women and children, in air raids conducted near the border in the southeastern Paktika province earlier this week.

A top security official from Pakistan stated that the targets were "terrorist hideouts," although Islamabad has yet to officially verify the execution of the airstrikes.

According to a senior security official at the border, "one frontier corps (FC) soldier has been reported dead, and seven others have been injured," noting that the clashes occurred in at least two locations within Pakistan's border district of Kurram.

The Afghan defense ministry announced on platform X that "several locations" across the border with Pakistan "where the attacks in Afghanistan were orchestrated... were targeted in response."

A provincial authority from Khost informed AFP that the clashes compelled residents to evacuate border regions, though there were no indications of casualties among Afghan forces.

In Khost city, the provincial capital, hundreds of Afghans protested against Pakistan on Saturday, demanding accountability for the loss of civilian lives.

Protester Najibullah Zaland emphasized their demand for international economic pressure on Pakistan to avert such occurrences.

"We assembled here today to amplify our voices to the world," he remarked to AFP.

"A strategy for peace needs to be established, otherwise, the youth will not remain silent."

The protesters lauded the Afghan forces, with one demonstrator, Rashidullah Hamdard, asserting, "Our fighters provided a strong response, and we stand with our forces."

Hamdard added, "We urge the global community to hold the Pakistani military accountable for these brutal and reckless assaults."