6 militants killed in clash on Pakistan-Afghan border

ISLAMABAD, 04 Jun 2018 [Fik/News Sources]: Six suspected Taliban militants were killed and four Pakistani soldiers injured in a cross-border attack on Pakistani border posts on Sunday, the military said. 

The attack was carried out by militants in the northwestern Bajaur district of KP and southwestern Qamar Din Qarez area of Balochistan near the border with Afghanistan, Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani Army’s media wing, said in a statement.  

“Terrorists carried out fire raids and physical attacks on Pakistan’s posts and border-fencing parties in Bajaur and Qamar Din Qarez areas, and were effectively responded to, killing six terrorists and injuring several others,” the statement said. 

Four soldiers were also injured.  

Terrorists are resorting to such attacks to prevent fencing and the construction of border posts, the statement added.  

In June 2017, the Pakistan army began fencing of the Pakistan-Afghan border to stop cross-border attacks by Pakistani militants who fled to Afghanistan following 2009 and 2014 military operations in the Malakand Division and Waziristan. 

According to Pakistan, despite this terrorist sabotage, construction of the border forts and fences will continue.  

Pakistan blames “Afghan-based terrorists” for the recent flare-up of violence on its soil, but Kabul denies the charge, accusing Islamabad in turn of patronizing the Afghan Taliban, particularly the powerful Haqqani network, a group blamed for numerous militant attacks in Afghanistan in recent years.

Pakistan and Afghanistan share 18 crossing points, including Torkham and Chaman, which see the heaviest use.

Afghanistan does not recognize the Durand Line, a 2,640-kilometer (1,640-mile) border established in 1893 under an agreement between British-ruled India and Abdur Rahman Khan, then-ruler of Afghanistan.