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According to a report by Reference News on August 13, citing the German News Agency, officials from Pakistan and Afghanistan said:One of the two main border crossings between the two countries was closed on the 13th after a deadly exchange of fire between the two armies.

According to reports, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Mufti Abdul Mateen said that Pakistani troops opened fire on Afghan civilians' homes near the Dolkham border, killing at least three Afghan civilians.

Pakistani border official Sheikh Ali told the German News Agency that Taliban militants used heavy weapons and artillery fire, injuring at least seven civilians on the Pakistani side.

Ali said hundreds of Pakistani families fled their homes from villages near the border overnight after the conflict began.

On August 13, 2024, local time, in Nangarhar Province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, the border was closed after Pakistan and Afghan Taliban militants exchanged fire in the Torkham border area. Image source: Visual China

Ali said the clashes were sparked when Taliban fighters tried to set up a checkpoint just metres from the border. No explanation was given from the Afghan side.

The report mentioned that since the Taliban occupied Kabul in 2021,Deadly clashes between Pakistani and Afghan security forces have become commonplace. Islamabad accuses Kabul of helping militant fighters who cross the border to launch deadly attacks on Pakistani security forces and civilians. The Taliban denies the charges.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs' official website shows that since 2024, Pakistan-Afghanistan relations have been tense, and the security forces of the two countries have exchanged fire on the border many times. On March 18, Pakistan launched an airstrike on targets in Afghanistan, and then the Afghan Taliban forces opened fire on Pakistani troops in the border area between the two countries, resulting in casualties.

According to CCTV News, the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on March 18 saying that the Pakistani military launched a "counter-terrorism operation" in Afghanistan in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area early that morning, targeting "terrorists" who had carried out multiple terrorist attacks in Pakistan together with the "Pakistani Taliban". On the same day, the Afghan interim government condemned Pakistan's air strikes on Afghanistan and denied the existence of the "Pakistani Taliban" in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the "terrorists" targeted in the attack had carried out multiple terrorist attacks in Pakistan, killing hundreds of civilians and law enforcement officers. The most recent one was a terrorist attack on a security force post in North Waziristan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northern Pakistan on the 16th, which killed seven Pakistani soldiers. Over the past two years, Pakistan has repeatedly expressed to the Afghan interim government its serious concerns about the existence of terrorist organizations in Afghanistan, saying that these terrorists pose a serious threat to Pakistan's security and continue to use Afghan territory to launch terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

Afghan interim government spokesman Mujahid issued a statement on social media on March 18, saying that Afghanistan would regard such reckless behavior as an infringement on Afghan territory and condemn it. According to the statement, at around 3 a.m. on March 18, Pakistani aircraft attacked civilian houses in the Barmar district of Paktika province and the Sappari district of Khost province, killing several civilians.

Daily Economic News is compiled from CCTV News, Reference News, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs official website

Daily Economic News