Afghan soldiers also killed during border clashes with Pakistani forces

Pakistani media had yesterday reported Pakistani officials as saying that two Pakistani paramilitary frontier corps were killed and five others were wounded during the clashes.

A regional Afghan police chief said that the clashes broke out along the Zazi Maidan border district in the southeastern province of Khost, adjacent to Kurram as Pakistan initiated firing to force people outside the claimed Pakistan border, Wion reported.

Pakistani officials told Reuters that two Pakistani soldiers were killed.

Abdul Hanan, the acting provincial police chief in Khost said that clashes broke out in three locations along the border in the early hours of April 15 after Pakistani paramilitary troops ignored repeated warnings from locals and Afghan border police officers and crossed the border.

Though security has improved in Pakistan’s remote areas bordering Afghanistan, sectarian militant attacks, primarily targeting Shi’ite Muslims, still occur.

“Pakistani troops are exercising maximum restraint so as to avoid any Afghan civilian casualties,” the Pakistan Army’s public relations department said, adding that five soldiers were wounded in the attack.

Afghan officials said that Pakistani troops crossed on to Afghan soil, prompting a response by border forces and the local tribal force.

“Two tribesmen were killed and the exchange of fire is ongoing,” said Mohmud Zazai, a senior army commander in the area.

Pakistan and Afghanistan share a nearly 2,600-kilometer largely porous border. The Pakistani military has recently started constructing a robust fence on the border in its bid to prevent illegal crossings in either direction.