KURRAM: Pakistan’s security forces and the Afghan Taliban exchanged fire along the border in Kurram tribal district on Sunday after Afghan authorities started construction activities inside Pakistani territory.

According to officials, three soldiers were wounded in cross-border firing. Residential areas also came under fire along the border on the Pakistan side, leaving two children injured.

They said clashes erupted near Kherlachi and Borki areas, two villages in Kurram district that border Afghanistan’s Paktia province, on Saturday night after Taliban, along with residents of Danda-Pattan, crossed into Pakistani territory to construct a road.

Following the shooting, senior officials and elders of Kurram held talks with the Taliban, leading to a ceasefire.

Inayat Hussain, a tribal elder, blamed Taliban for the incident. He told Dawn in Parachinar that despite the ceasefire, Taliban resumed construction on the Pakistan side along the border.

On Sunday, the Afghans moved two excavators to resume construction at the same point where the hostilities had begun.

Pakistani forces responded to the Taliban firing. Mortar shells fired from the Afghanistan side hit residential compounds in Borki and Kherlachi.

Two children, Bibi Sakeena and Javed Ali Shah, were injured in the firing and admitted to Parachinar’s district headquarters hospital.

Three wounded soldiers, Naik Mudassir, Sepoy Mushtaq and Sepoy Amir, were shifted to a military hospital nearby.

Kherlachi and Borki, west of Parachinar, are two notified border crossing points with Afghanistan.

Three Pakistani soldiers were martyred when Pakistani security forces and Taliban exchanged fire in Kherlachi area in September.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2022