Kabul, March 25 (IANS) At least two people were killed and eight others were injured after Pakistani military fired 85 artillery shells into Afghanistan’s Kunar province, an official said on Wednesday.
Information and Culture Department spokesperson Zia-ur-Rahman Spinghar said that the Pakistani military fired 85 shells over the past 24 hours, Afghanistan-based Pajhwok Afghan News reported. According to him, 16 shells hit local areas in Nari district, claiming life of one civilian and injuring six others.
Spinghar further said that Pakistan carried out two drone strikes and launched 47 long-range projectiles, killing one person and injuring two others in Sarkano district on Wednesday. He said two shells struck Manura district, 15 hit Shultan district and five landed in Asadabad. However, no casualties were reported.
According to the spokesperson, Afghan forces, in response, destroyed three Pakistani posts in Sarkano district’s Nawapas area along the Durand Line, killing one Pakistani soldier, Pajhwok Afghan News reported.
On Sunday, Taliban had accused Pakistani forces of firing on civilians in Afghanistan’s Kunar and Paktika provinces, killing one person and injuring another.
Taliban deputy spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat had said that Pakistani forces fired mortar rounds on the Shanpat area of Nari district in Kunar at around 9.30 a.m. (local time). He said that one person was killed and a woman was injured in the attack.
Pakistani forces opened fire on a civilian vehicle in Paktika’s Shkin district, but no one was injured in the attack, he said.
“Today, Sunday, the fourth day of Eid al-Fitr, at 9:30 a.m., a mortar shell was fired by the Pakistani military regime in the Shanpat area of Nari district of Kunar province, resulting in the injury of a woman and the martyrdom of a civilian. Similarly, the militias of the said regime fired on a civilian vehicle in Shkin district of Paktika province. Fortunately, the passengers of the said vehicle escaped unharmed, and there were no casualties,” Fitrat posted on X.
The developments came despite a ceasefire announced by Afghanistan and Pakistan on the occasion of Eid. However, the Taliban has accused Pakistani forces of repeatedly violating the ceasefire and conducting attacks in Kunar and Nuristan during the Eid period, causing civilian casualties.
–IANS
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