KABUL, March 30 (Reuters) – Afghanistan and Pakistan have traded heavy fire, both sides said, days after they announced a temporary pause in fighting, escalating tensions in the volatile region as Islamabad said it hopes to host potential talks between the U.S. and Iran.
The border clashes came on Sunday, the day Pakistan hosted regional powers to discuss de-escalation in the war in the Middle East, with an announcement that Islamabad could host the talks in coming days.
Both sides used artillery and heavy weapons to hit locations in Afghanistan’s Kunar province and its bordering district of Bajur in Pakistan, officials said.
Pakistan’s fire killed at least one person and injured another 16, most of them women and children, said Hamdullah Fitrat, a deputy spokesperson for Kabul’s Taliban administration.
Pakistan only responded to shelling from Afghanistan, security officials said, denying that it targeted any civilian locations.
A Pakistani government official said the Afghanistan claim was exaggerated. “Some minor violations took place from the Afghan side and we responded to it in the same sector,” he said.
The officials declined to be identified as they were not authorised to speak to media.
The Pakistani military did not respond to a request for a comment.
Pakistan and Afghanistan’s worst fighting in years erupted last month, claiming heavy human losses on both sides.
Kabul said more than 400 people were killed in a Pakistani air strike on a drug rehabilitation centre in the Afghan capital this month before the neighbours suspended fighting.
Pakistan rejected the Taliban’s statements about the strike, saying it had “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure”.
A pause in hostilities was announced for the Islamic festival of Eid al-Fitr, and also requested by Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which Islamabad ended last week.
Kabul has not yet announced officially whether the ceasefire was still holding form their side.
Islamabad accuses the Afghan Taliban of harbouring and supporting Islamist militants who carry out attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul denies it, saying the militancy is Pakistan’s domestic problem.
(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul and Mushtaq Ali in Peshawar; Writing by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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