Kabul, March 25 – At least two people were killed and eight others were injured after the Pakistani military fired 85 artillery shells into Afghanistan's Kunar province, an official said on Wednesday.
Information and Culture Department spokesperson Zia-ur-Rahman Spinghar said that the Pakistani military fired 85 shells over the past 24 hours, according to Pajhwok Afghan News, an Afghan-based news agency. He stated that 16 shells landed in the Nari district, resulting in the death of one civilian and the injury of six others.
Spinghar further stated that Pakistan carried out two drone strikes and launched 47 long-range projectiles, killing one person and injuring two others in the Sarkano district on Wednesday. He said that two shells landed in the Manura district, 15 in the Shultan district, and five in Asadabad. However, no casualties were reported.
According to the spokesperson, Afghan forces responded by destroying three Pakistani posts in the Nawapas area of Sarkano district along the Durand Line, killing one Pakistani soldier, Pajhwok Afghan News reported.
On Sunday, the Taliban accused Pakistani forces of firing on civilians in Afghanistan's Kunar and Paktika provinces, killing one person and injuring another.
Taliban spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said that Pakistani forces fired mortar rounds on the Shanpat area of Nari district in Kunar at around 9:30 a.m. (local time). He stated that one person was killed and a woman was injured in the attack.
Pakistani forces opened fire on a civilian vehicle in Paktika's Shkin district, but no one was injured, he said.
"Today, Sunday, the fourth day of Eid al-Fitr, at 9:30 a.m., a mortar shell was fired by the Pakistani military regime in the Shanpat area of Nari district of Kunar province, resulting in the injury of a woman and the death of a civilian. Similarly, the militias of the said regime fired on a civilian vehicle in Shkin district of Paktika province. Fortunately, the passengers of the said vehicle escaped unharmed, and there were no casualties," Fitrat posted on X.
These developments came despite a ceasefire announced by Afghanistan and Pakistan on the occasion of Eid. However, the Taliban has accused Pakistani forces of repeatedly violating the ceasefire and conducting attacks in Kunar and Nuristan during the Eid period, causing civilian casualties.