9 killed, over 40 injured after Afghan forces open fire on border villages in Chaman
Chaman Civil Hospital's medical superintendent, Dr Akhtar, told DawnNewsthat five children and three women were among those killed, whereas police confirmed that four Frontier Corps (FC) personnel are among the injured.
Dr Akhtar added that over 40 people had been injured, with five critically wounded victims sent to Quetta for medical treatment.
In a press statement issued Friday afternoon, the Army's media wing said the exchange of firing had stopped and Pakistan and Afghan security officials would be meeting on the Chaman crossing for a flag meeting.
The director generals of military operations of both armies also established hotline contact ahead of the flag meeting.
The Army said Maj Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza had condemned Afghan forces' unprovoked firing on Pakistani villagers and security forces while underlining to his Afghan counterpart that the Pakistani forces and civilians who had been attacked were well within Pakistani territory when assaulted.
He also asked the Afghan DGMO to limit their forces to their own side of the border and defuse the situation.
The Chaman border had been closed soon after the hostilities started.
Chaman city was also shut down following the attack, with shopkeepers shuttering their shops and residents evacuating their homes in Killi Luqman, Killi Jahangir and Badshah Adda Kahol, Killa Abdullah's district police officer (DPO), Sajid Mohmand, said.
Security had also been ramped up in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan following the cross-border attack, and additional contingents of the Army and FC had been dispatched to the Pak-Afghan border in Chaman, DawnNews reported, quoting military sources.
The Foreign Office (FO) also summoned the Afghan chargé d'affaires to lodge a protest against the cross-border attack.
The chargé d'affaires was told that the "unprovoked firing by Afghan forces had led to the loss of lives, disrupted the census in areas on the Pakistan side of the border and caused damage to properties," a statement released by the FO said.
The FO urged the Afghan government to take action against those responsible for the violation.
Samim Khpalwak, spokesman for the governor of Afghanistan's Kandahar province, in a statement to AFP said that one Afghan civilian and three border police forces personnel were also wounded in the exchange of fire.
He added that the scuffle was ongoing, with "dozens" of Afghan security forces rushing to the scene.
Emoticon