Officials in Afghanistan claimed on Sunday to have killed 58 Pakistani soldiers during clashes overnight at the border between the two countries. Pakistan says it killed 200 Afghan Taliban soldiers and allies, Reuters reported.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Afghan troops captured 25 army posts from Pakistan, wounding 30 soldiers in what the Defense Ministry called “retaliatory and successful operations.”
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Accusations fly
While Pakistani officials said they killed several Taliban fighters, they did not immediately confirm Afghan officials’ account of the fighting on the border, The New York Times reported. Both countries said they destroyed border posts on the other’s side.
Two major border crossings, Torkham and Chaman, and at least three minor crossings, Kharlachi, Angoor Adda and Ghulam Khan, were closed as of Sunday morning, Reuters reports.
Fighting stopped at midnight following requests from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, two nations that previously expressed concern over the attacks and called on officials to show restraint to de-escalate tension.
“The situation on all official borders and de facto lines of Afghanistan is under complete control and illegal activities have been largely prevented,” Mujahid said at a news conference in Kabul reported on by The Associated Press.
Earlier this week, Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry accused Pakistan of striking the Abdul Haq Square area of Kabul. Pakistan did not claim responsibility for the attack.
On Sunday, the ministry said, “If the opposing side again violates Afghanistan’s territorial integrity, our armed forces are fully prepared to defend the nation’s borders and will deliver a strong response.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan did not specifically address the most recent incidents on Sunday, but said his country’s military had a “strong and effective response” to Afghanistan’s actions on the border.
“The fighting went on for hours without pause,” said Shabbir Khan, a resident of Kurram, a Pakistani border district. Aziz Sayar, who lives in Afghanistan’s Kunar Province, said “our children screamed in fear as bullets echoed through the night.”
Afghanistan, Pakistan border
Afghanistan and Pakistan share a 1,600-mile border called the Durand Line, which has frequently been the site of skirmishes over the years. While Pakistan and other nations recognize it as the border between the two countries, Afghanistan does not.
Even though Pakistan gave the Taliban support during the United States’ occupation of Afghanistan, this changed once the Taliban gained back control in 2021.
Pakistan has accused the Taliban of helping Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the T.T.P., a group which aims to overthrow the elected government of Pakistan and create an emirate based on its interpretation of Islamic law. The Taliban denies this.
