Afghan official says Pakistani fire kills 7 along border

A Taliban security personnel keeps watch along a street in Herat. (File/AFP)

ASADABAD, Afghanistan: The Pakistani military killed at least seven civilians and wounded 85 others in an Afghan border province on Monday, a provincial health official said.
Hundreds of people have been killed since the two neighbors went to war in late February, according to UN figures, although the violence has abated in recent weeks.
The Afghan government said Pakistani “mortars and rockets” hit homes and a university in Asadabad, the capital of eastern Kunar province, and in another district.
Muzaffar Mukhlis, the provincial public health director, said “85 wounded and seven bodies have been brought” from border areas and Asadabad.
“The victims are all civilians,” he told AFP.
An AFP journalist in Kunar spoke to multiple residents who said their relatives were killed or wounded in the attacks.
The new toll raises an earlier figure of four killed and 70 wounded, given by Afghan deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat.
Pakistan’s information ministry earlier denied attacking residential areas or the university, calling any such claim a “blatant lie.”
At a hospital in Asadabad, resident Sahatullah sat beside his nephew, who he said was one of multiple people wounded in one incident.
“He was playing outside, and shelling came and hit over there,” said the 22-year-old laborer, who gave only one name.
Zmarai Kunari, a 40-year-old teacher, said one of his relatives was killed and others were hurt.
“This is my brother. He was wounded in the shelling; he had gone to pick up his uncle,” he said at the hospital.
Kunar information chief Najibullah Hanif said Pakistani mortar fire and airstrikes hit three districts as well as Asadabad, where university accommodation and a neighborhood were struck.
The AFP journalist in the provincial capital heard drones flying overhead on Monday evening, while Afghan forces boosted security measures with additional checkpoints.
’A bad situation’
The latest violence follows fierce fighting along the frontier this year, as well as unprecedented Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan cities including the capital Kabul.
A days-long ceasefire was agreed in March, and mediator China later said the warring sides had agreed to avoid escalation.
However, Afghans have since reported sporadic violence.
“We’ve been in a bad situation for almost two months. Sometimes the fighting is intense, and sometimes it’s not,” Mushtaq Wazir, who lives in the border province of Paktika, told AFP.
He said one person was killed in clashes on Monday, and four others wounded at the weekend.
Suhbat Katwazi, from Barmal, the same district in Paktika, told AFP that Monday’s death was caused by a mortar shell that hit the person’s home.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been fraught since Taliban officials took power in Kabul for a second time in 2021.
Security issues have proved a sticking point, especially Pakistan’s demand that Afghanistan curb the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group.
Islamabad accuses the Taliban government of sheltering militants behind a surge in attacks, particularly the TTP, which has waged a violent campaign against Pakistan for years.
Afghan officials deny the charge and counter that Pakistan harbors hostile groups and does not respect its sovereignty.
The border between the neighbors has remained largely closed since a flare-up in deadly violence in October, freezing bilateral trade.