TALIBAN ISSUES WARNING OVER CIVILIANS KILLED BY PAKISTAN ROCKETS

Demonstrators take part in a protest against Pakistani airstrikes, in Khost on April 16, 2022.

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Sun 17 April 2022:

Afghanistan government led by Taliban warned Pakistan after five children and a woman were killed in Afghanistan in alleged rocket assaults by Pakistani soldiers in a pre-dawn assault near the border on Saturday.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan condemns in the strongest possible terms the bombardment and attack that has taken place from the Pakistan side on the soil of Afghanistan,” government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters in an audio message.

“This is a cruelty and it is paving the way for enmity between Afghanistan and Pakistan … We are using all options to prevent repetitions (of such attacks) and calling for our sovereignty to be respected,” he said.

“The Pakistani side should know that if a war starts it will not be in the interest of any side. It will cause instability in the region.”

Pakistani military officials were not immediately available for comment.

Hundreds of civilians of Khost poured into the streets chanting anti-Pakistan slogans later on Saturday.

Islamabad claims militant groups are launching attacks on Pakistan from Afghan soil.

The Taliban deny harbouring Pakistani militants, and is infuriated by construction of a fence Pakistan is erecting along their 2,700-kilometre (1,600-mile) border, known as the Durand line.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said it was “deeply concerned” by civilian deaths caused by air strikes, and the mission was verifying the extent of casualties.

On Thursday, at least seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in an ambush by an armed group near the Afghan border.

According to a military statement, a Pakistani military convoy in a former stronghold of the Pakistan Taliban, known by the acronym TTP, near the Afghan border was ambushed, triggering an intense shoot-out in which seven soldiers and four members of the armed group were killed.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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