[ad_1]
ISLAMABAD, Dec. 18 (PTI) A delegation of Pakistani clerics will travel to Afghanistan this week to hold talks with Afghan officials to end cross-border hostilities in the southwestern Chaman border region, authorities said on Sunday.
“International News” quoted the Chaman regional government as saying that the four-member delegation will hold meetings with Afghan Defense Ministry officials and key Taliban leaders in Kandahar and Kabul.
Read also | Afghanistan: Oil tanker catches fire in Parwan province, killing 1 and injuring 26.
With the departure of the delegation, the Pakistan-Afghan border security force flag meeting has been postponed, they added.
Pakistan summoned the Afghan charge d’affaires here on Friday to condemn recent “unprovoked” cross-border shelling by Afghan forces near the Chaman crossing, which has heightened tensions between Islamabad and Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers.
Read also | North Korea launches two nuclear ballistic missiles capable of reaching Japan.
Afghan Taliban forces fired mortars at civilians in the restive Chaman-Spin Boldak district of Balochistan province on Thursday, killing at least one person and injuring 11 others.
A spate of deadly incidents and attacks in recent months has strained relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, with the latest violence rife. Thursday’s violence was the second shooting in less than a week after a similar attack on Dec. 10 killed seven civilians.
Earlier this month, Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul was shot in an attack that the Islamic State group later claimed claimed responsibility for. Pakistani officials at the time described the incident as an attack on its envoy there. Islamabad also said Afghanistan’s rulers were sheltering militants who carried out deadly attacks on its territory.
Pakistan and Afghanistan share a volatile border of 2,600 kilometers.
Chaman remains a busy border trade zone between Pakistan and Afghanistan and a flashpoint of clashes between border forces on both sides.
The Chaman crossing, also known as the Gate of Friendship, connects Balochistan with Kandahar in Afghanistan. Last month, an armed Afghan crossed the Pakistani side of the border and opened fire on security forces, killing one soldier and wounding two others.
Islamabad has completed nearly 90 percent of the fencing along the border despite protests from Kabul, which disputes the century-old British-era border delineation that separates families on both sides.
Successive regimes in Afghanistan, including past U.S.-backed governments, have disputed the border, which has historically been a contentious issue between the two neighbors.public transport
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
[ad_2]
Source link