Islamabad - At least two Pakistani security personnel were injured and an Afghan soldier was killed in a border clash early Wednesday.
According to an ISPR statement, an RPG-7 rocket and few rounds of small arms were fired on Angoor Ada gate from Afghan side due to which two Pakistani security personnel were injured. "Pakistani troops responded and targeted positions from where fire was originated," the statement added.
The border clash also left one Afghan security personnel dead, officials in Kabul said.
Pakistan military spokesman Major-General Asim Bajwa told VoA its soldiers were engaged in a construction activity at the Angoor Adda border area when they came under attack from the Afghan side. Afghanistan’s interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi told reporters in Kabul that the border clash left one Afghan personnel dead. He said that the government has sent a special team to probe the circumstances leading to the clash.
The latest round of fighting, which took place between the Afghan province of Paktika and the Pakistani region of South Waziristan, began after Pakistan began building a new border installation along the Durand Line, according to officials from both countries.
The disagreement escalated into open combat on Tuesday night, with the two sides trading rockets and small-arms fire for several hours. Afghan officials claim a Pakistani watchtower was also hit.
Sediqi alleged that the construction the Pakistani forces were undertaking violated mutual understandings and "Afghan forces are authorised to take action to prevent such attempts."
Pakistani spokesman General Bajwa, however, rejected the allegation. “The activity did not constitute violation of the border because it was being undertaken on our side,” he added. He denied Afghan media claims that eight Pakistani soldiers were killed in the clashes.
The army spokesman downplayed the border incident, saying “it does not in any way” change Pakistan’s stated policy of helping the Afghan government’s efforts aimed at bringing peace to their conflict-torn nation.
While the fighting has stopped, the situation remains tense. “Pakistan has dispatched more troops to the Durand Line and Afghan security forces are on alert,” a senior Afghan official said. The Pakistanis declined to comment beyond giving basic details about the clash and the building work. On Wednesday, the bazaar in Angoor Ada was closed, and labourers working on a project on the Pakistani side were given a day off, Anwaar Wazir, a shopkeeper from the village, said.
Tension on Pak-Afghan border along the border of Khyber Agency and South Waziristan tribal region is rising in the face of Pakistan's final phase of its ongoing operation Zarb-e-Azb targeting terrorists and their hideouts close to the border region. Both the countries are engaged in finalising SOP to manage the border effectively in a coordinated effort to deny freedom of action to terrorists operating on both sides of the border.
The two countries have lately taken a number of steps to bridge the gulf of distrust and turn the acrimonious past into a harmonious relationship. Besides, the intelligence cooperation MoU, the two have worked on improving border coordination.
Consequently, last month, in an unprecedented cross-border 'rescue' operation, Pakistani troops crossed into Afghanistan on Tuesday to evacuate an Afghan soldier, who had been critically wounded in an exchange with the Taliban.
Afghan authorities sought help for evacuation of the soldier and Pakistani forces stationed at a nearby post responded quickly and brought the wounded soldier to Pakistani side of the border.
The injured soldier was deployed at Afghan Army's 'Shaheen Post', which is some 1.5 km west of Bajaur's Nawapass area.