Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday called on the Taliban to «ensure that there is no repetition» of incidents such as the one recorded on Sunday on the common border, after clashes that resulted in the death of at least seven people.
«The Afghan interim government must ensure that such incidents are not repeated,» he said in a message on his account on the social network Twitter after the events, which killed a Taliban and six Pakistanis – a soldier and five civilians – following the recent upsurge in border tensions.
«The unprovoked firing and artillery attacks by Afghan border forces in Chaman, which led to the martyrdom of many Pakistani citizens and injured more than a dozen are unfortunate and deserve the strongest condemnation,» he has zanelled.
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry has expressed itself along the same lines, denouncing that «the Afghan border forces resorted to unprovoked and indiscriminate firing on the civilian population in Chaman». «These unfortunate incidents are not in line with the brotherly ties between the two countries,» it said.
«The Afghan authorities have been informed that the recurrence of such incidents should be avoided and the strictest possible action should be taken against those responsible,» the ministry said in a statement on its website.
«There is a possibility for both sides to protect civilians along the border. The competent authorities of both countries remain in contact to ensure that there is no further escalation of the situation and that a repetition of such incidents is avoided,» it concluded.
At the moment there are no details on the causes of the clashes, which took place after a Pakistani serviceman was killed in November in an exchange of fire at the border crossing, which led to its closure for more than a week.
The event also took place days after an attack on the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul and after the armed group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), known as the Pakistani Taliban, announced the end of a truce announced as part of a series of contacts with Islamabad that were mediated by the Afghan Taliban.
Afghan and Pakistani authorities agreed in January to form a joint ministerial committee to resolve disputes over the 2,640-kilometer Durand Line, which marks the border between the two countries.
The Durand Line was established in 1893 following an agreement between the then British Foreign Secretary in India, Mortimer Durand, and Afghan Amir Abdur Rahman Khan to delimit spheres of influence. Following Pakistan’s independence, Islamabad came to recognize it as its border with Afghanistan, although Kabul took no such step. This line divides the Pashtun and Baloch communities living on both sides of the border, which has led to disputes in both countries.
