Islamabad: Several Pakistani civilians were killed and dozens injured on Friday when Afghan border police opened fire on security personnel guarding a census team in the border town of Chaman in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, officials said.
Pakistani paramilitary troops responded to the Afghan shelling and authorities closed the border crossing at Chaman between Balochistan and Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar region, 120 kilometres north of the provincial capital, Quetta, leaving cargo trucks and travellers stranded on both sides.
The government said Islamabad strongly protested to Kabul over the incident.
According to local media reports quoting Chaman, hospital officials said nine people were killed and more than 40 injured.
Chaman Civil Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Akhtar said five children and three women were among those killed, whereas police confirmed that four Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were among the injured, the Dawn website reported.
Dr Akhtar said five critically wounded people were sent to Quetta for medical treatment.
Following the incident commercial activity in Chaman was suspended and residents in several border villages were evacuating their homes District Police Officer Sajid Mohmand told the media.
Security has been tightened in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan and additional contingents of the army and FC have been dispatched to Chaman, said the Dawn News report quoting military sources.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement the Afghan Border Police opened fire on FC personnel detailed for the security of a census team despite the fact that Afghan authorities had been informed in advance about the census exercise through diplomatic and military channels.
“Since April 30, Afghan Border Police had been creating hurdles in [the] conduct of census in divided villages of Killi Luqman and Killi Jahangir in Chaman area, on Pakistani side of the border,” the military’s media wing said.
The Afghan Charge d’affairs was summoned to the Foreign Office to lodge Pakistan’s strong protest over the “unprovoked firing” by the Afghan forces in Chaman area, which resulted in the martyrdom of several Pakistani citizens and injuries to a number of people, including women and children, an official statement said.
The diplomat was told that Pakistani authorities were undertaking the population census and this information had been shared with Afghan government earlier.
Samim Khpalwak, spokesman for the governor of Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province, said the Pakistani census officials had strayed on to the Afghan side of the border and were attempting to count people living there.
The census enumerators are being accompanied by security forces as they carry out the count.
Kandahar police chief Abdul Raziq said one civilian was killed and up to 17 Afghan troops wounded, adding he had asked his men to hold fire — unless Pakistani forces begin shooting again.
But Pakistan’s military and Foreign Office maintained they had told Afghan authorities where they would be in advance, saying that “indiscriminate” fire had killed seven Pakistani civilians and wounded 33 more, including four paramilitary border police.
“Pakistan reserves the right to fully respond if Afghanistan fails to take measures to stop this provocation,” a foreign office spokesman told a regular press briefing in Islamabad.
“The unprovoked firing from the Afghan side not only led to the loss of precious lives and injured many, but has also disrupted the census in areas on the Pakistan side of the border and caused damage to properties,” the Foreign Office statement said.
“We urge the Afghan government to take immediate steps to bring an end to the unprovoked firing from the Afghan side. Action should also be taken against those who are responsible for this violation,” the statement said.
This the second time Chaman border crossing was closed during the current year. Earlier on February 18, Pakistan had closed its borders with Afghanistan at Chaman and Torkham in the northwest after a series of terrorist attacks in the country killed over 100 people.
After over a month of closure, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had ordered the reopening of the borders as a goodwill gesture.
The latest border incident came days after the visits of two high-profile Pakistani delegations to Afghanistan aimed at easing bilateral tensions.
Speaking to the media upon his return from Kabul, National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had said that the Afghan side had “promised” that the Afghan president and the country’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah would visit Pakistan.
But earlier this week, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani declined invitations extended by top civil and military officials to visit Pakistan, saying he would not visit until Islamabad hands over the perpetrators of terror attacks in Afghanistan.
Pakistan insists it does not allow use of its soil by anyone to launch attacks in Afghanistan and instead blames Pakistani Taliban militants and allied groups indulging in attacks in Pakistan from their sanctuaries on the Afghan side of the border.
