Border clashes with Pakistan leave 15 Afghan civilians dead, officials say

Some of the most intense border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent years left at least 15 civilians dead on the Afghan side Thursday, officials said.

Afghanistan accused Pakistani forces of firing heavy artillery into civilian areas after protests by communities on both sides who were demanding the reopening of a nearby border crossing that Pakistan had closed to try to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Hayatullah Hayat, the governor of Kandahar province, where the clashes occurred, said the worst barrage of Pakistani artillery started around 7 pm and struck the Spin Boldak area. In addition to the deaths, at least 80 other civilians were wounded, he said. Afghan security officials said they had retaliated with rockets. Social media videos apparently filmed from the Pakistani side showed the dark sky lit up by intense crossfire.

Pakistani officials did not immediately comment on the reports of shelling. News outlets reported that officials from the local Pakistani government in Baluchistan province had arrived at the border to assess the situation.

Gen Yasin Zia, the chief of Afghanistan’s army, has ordered the three army corps stationed along the border areas to be “fully ready to retaliate to the Pakistani military in kind” and put his country’s special forces and air force on the “highest alert,” Afghanistan’s Defence Ministry said in a statement. The ministry estimated the number of dead at nine, including a child.

Movement across the porous border had been restricted by the Pakistani side in recent months over concern about the pandemic, which has hit both countries hard. The restrictions particularly affected communities on two sides of the Chaman crossing, people who rely on easy border trade, either as labourers or smugglers, for a living.

For several weeks, protesters had continued a sit-in on the Pakistani side of the crossing in Chaman demanding the resumption of normal flow. In June, Pakistan reopened for commercial trucks, but the crossing remained shut for travellers and labourers. The border was opened for travellers stuck on the two sides Wednesday, but the protest to allow the routine crossing of labourers had continued.

The situation grew tense on the Pakistani side Thursday, with reports of Pakistani forces opening fire on protesters during clashes and killing at least two people. The protesters torched a COVID-19 quarantine facility. When thousands of travellers stuck on the Afghan side rushed for the crossing in the chaos, they were met by Pakistani fire that also struck Afghan border police facilities. The situation erupted into full-on clashes that intensified late into the night, witnesses said.

Afghan officials and residents in Spin Boldak District said heavy artillery fire from the Pakistani side forced hundreds of families to flee their homes from border villages.

The clashes at the southern border were just a week after Afghan officials said Pakistani forces had fired dozens of mortar shells into the Sarkano District of eastern Kunar province, killing eight civilians.

The two countries share a long border, about 1,500 miles, that was drawn by the British in the 19th century and that left ethnic Pashtun tribes split. Consecutive Afghan governments have questioned the legitimacy of the division, known as the Durand Line, as an official border. Efforts by Pakistani government to build reinforced fences and security checkpoints along the border has angered Afghan officials and communities in the area.

© 2020 New York Times News Service