Daily Times

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said on Monday that the interim government in Kabul has apologised to Pakistan for firing by Afghan Border Forces on the civilian population in Balochistan’s Chaman district a day earlier, clarifying that the “matter is now resolved”.

At least seven people lost their lives and 16 others suffered injuries on Sunday in Chaman when it came under “unprovoked and indiscriminate” heavy gunfire and artillery shelling by Afghan border forces, according to the military’s media affairs wing. The incident has been widely condemned across the political divide in Pakistan.

Addressing the matter in a National Assembly session today, Asif said that the “provocation at Chaman was from the Afghan side”. “There was a portion of the fence damaged […] our people were repairing it […] they slammed the fence with a jeep […] they took the stand that the reparation work should have been referred in the border security committee. When the matter escalated, they opened fire. In the first round of fire, no casualties occurred. But later when they used heavy ammunition […] because of that five of our civilians were martyred and two passed away on the way to Quetta,” he detailed.

In response, Asif said, Pakistan fired on the Afghan post which resulted in casualties of eight to nine Afghan soldiers. “After that, the border security committee met again and it was agreed that Afghanistan was at fault […] we believe that there was no motive behind this […] there is no evidence of any planning behind the attack.”

The minister revealed that the Afghan authorities had admitted their mistake and promised that such incidents won’t happen in the future. “But speaker sahab, one thing is clear that the internal situation of Afghanistan is being reflected in its relations with Pakistan,” Asif stressed. He added that Pakistan was a well-wisher of Afghanistan and wanted the situation there to improve, promising that “we will fully cooperate for Afghan peace”.

A spokesman for Kandahar’s governor, Ataullah Zaid, appeared to link the clashes with the construction of new checkpoints on the Afghan side of the border, the AP news agency reported. Separately, he told local media in Chaman by phone that one Afghan security man was killed and 13 people were injured, including 10 soldiers and three civilians.

Meanwhile, another Afghan official, Noor Ahmad, who spoke to Reuters from Kandahar, claimed the incident was “accidental” and the situation had returned to normal after the two sides had a meeting. The busy Afghan border crossing at Chaman, used for trade and transit, was closed for a few hours after the incident, Pakistani officials said.