A border clash between Pakistan and Afghanistan overnight has left one Afghan security personnel dead and two Pakistani soldiers wounded, officials in both countries confirmed Wednesday.
Pakistan military spokesman Major-General Asim Bajwa told VOA its soldiers were engaged in a construction activity at the Angoor Adda border area when they came under attack from the Afghan side.
“Our men responded to the rocket and small arms firing by the Afghan security forces,” he said, adding that two Pakistani soldiers sustained injuries in the incident.
The army spokesman would not comment on casualties on the other side.
Afghanistan’s interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi told reporters in Kabul that the border clash left one Afghan personnel dead. He said that the government has sent a special team to probe the circumstances leading to the clash.
Angoor Adda is in Pakistan’s insurgency-hit South Waziristan tribal region. It borders the Barmal district of Afghanistan’s southeastern Paktika province.
Sediqi alleged that the construction the Pakistani forces were undertaking violated mutual understandings and "Afghan forces are authorized to take action to prevent such attempts."
Pakistani spokesman General Bajwa, however, rejected the allegation.
“The activity did not constitute violation of the border because it was being undertaken on our side,” he added. He denied Afghan media claims that eight Pakistani soldiers were killed in the clashes.
The army spokesman downplayed the border incident, saying “it does not in anyway” change Pakistan’s stated policy of helping the Afghan government’s efforts aimed at bringing peace to their conflict-torn nation.
