Emergency declared in border town amid evacuation of civilian population.

QUETTA/ RAWALPINDI    -    At least one person died and more than a dozen others were injured when firing from inside Afghani­stan targeted the civil population of Balochistan’s Chaman on Thursday, officials and res­cue workers said. 

The gunfire continued intermittently, creating terror among the local residents. Chaman DHQ Hospital Medical Superin­tendent Dr Malik Achakzai told reporters that at least fifteen people including women and children were brought to the hospital with multi­ple bullet wounds. 

Deputy Commissioner of Chaman Abdul Hameed Zehri said that an emergency had been declared at the hospital as authorities evacuated cit­izens from Mall Road, Boghra Road bypass, and Border Road following the firing. Levies officials reported that multiple artillery rounds were fired upon the civilian population around the Boghra Road and Cus­tom House areas from the cross-bor­der country. They added that the Pa­kistani forces had given a befitting response to the shelling from the cross-border country. According to the district administration, the local people of the area were being evac­uated after starting of clashes and an emergency had been declared in DHQ Hospital Chaman.

The Pakistan Army said Thursday that an ‘indiscriminate fire from inside Afghanistan’ on the civil population of Chaman on Thursday start­ed that continued inter­mittently, leaving many in­nocent civilians injured. According to a press release issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), “due to the firing, there were reports of injuries in­cluding children and women.”

‘Second attack within a week’

Balochistan Minister for Home and Tribal Affairs Mir Ziaullah Lan­gu Thursday strongly condemned the unprovoked firing by the Afghan border forces in Chaman Border and demanded the Afghan interim gov­ernment take strict notice of this in­cident. He said that the occurrence of such incidents, twice just with­in a week, on the part of the Afghan authorities was a cause for concern, while Pakistan’s peace en­deavor should not be con­sidered as our weakness. Minister Mir Ziaullah Lan­gu also asked the depu­ty commissioner Chaman to submit report of the in­cident. He also instruct­ed the district administra­tion to provide all medical facilities to the injured in the event. Meanwhile, Mir Ziaullah has imposed an emergency in all hospitals across the district in the light of the instructions of Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo. Reportedly, clashes erupt­ed once again between the border forces of Afghani­stan and Pakistan near the key Chaman-Spin Boldak border crossing on Thurs­day, resulting in one death and over a dozen injuries, Pakistani officials said. Previously, cross-border shelling and gunfire killed eight Pakistani civilians and one Afghan soldier on Sunday near the same crossing, which connects Pakistan’s southwest­ern province of Baloch­istan with the southern Afghan province of Kan­dahar. Thursday’s fight­ing started when Pakistani forces repairing a por­tion of the border fence damaged during Sunday’s clashes came under at­tack from the Afghan side of the frontier, a provin­cial official Balochistan, Zahid Saleem, told report­ers. Saleem, who is addi­tional chief secretary of the province, said Afghan mortar shells had landed in civilian settlements on the Pakistani side. “One ci­vilian has been killed and 12 others, including wom­en and children, were in­jured,” a local official of the Pakistani border area of Chaman said, adding that clashes were still on­going.