Days After Pakistani Airstrikes, Soldier Dies In Skirmishes With Afghan Forces

 

Days After Pakistani Airstrikes, Soldier Dies In Skirmishes With Afghan Forces

Intermittent combat, involving significant weaponry, broke out overnight among border troops along the frontier separating Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province from Afghanistan's Khost province. A security source reported on Saturday that a Pakistani paramilitary soldier lost his life and seven others sustained injuries during cross-border gunfire with Afghan forces, coinciding with mass protests by Afghans against the lethal airstrikes that initiated the confrontations.

Intermittent combat, involving significant weaponry, broke out overnight among border troops along the frontier separating Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province from Afghanistan's Khost province, as confirmed by officials from both nations.

These gunfire exchanges followed accusations from Afghanistan's Taliban government, claiming that Pakistan had killed 46 individuals, primarily women and children, in airstrikes near the border in Paktika province earlier this week.

A senior security figure from Pakistan indicated that they targeted "terrorist hideouts," although Islamabad has not officially corroborated the air assault.

"A solitary frontier corps (FC) soldier has been reported killed, and seven additional personnel have been injured," a senior security official stationed at the border communicated to AFP, noting that confrontations transpired in at least two areas within Pakistan's Kurram border district.

The Afghan defense ministry announced via X that "multiple locations" over the border with Pakistan "where the assaults in Afghanistan were orchestrated... were struck in retaliation." An official from Khost province informed AFP that the fights compelled locals to evacuate border regions, though there were no reports of injuries among Afghan forces.

In Khost city, the provincial capital, hundreds of Afghans staged a demonstration against Pakistan on Saturday, demanding accountability for the civilian fatalities.

Protester Najibullah Zaland stated that they called for international economic pressure on Pakistan to avert future occurrences.

"We assembled here today to voice our concerns to the global community," he conveyed to AFP.

"A framework for peace must be established, or otherwise the youth will not remain voiceless."

The protesters commended the Afghan military, with one demonstrator, Rashidullah Hamdard, asserting, "our fighters provided a robust response, and we stand united with our forces."