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The brief truce had been announced by the two sides ahead of the
Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Ziaur Rahman Speenghar, a
director at the information and culture department in
Afghanistan’s Kunar province, said Pakistani forces fired dozens
of artillery shells into the Narai and Sarkano districts,
killing two civilians and wounding eight others after the
ceasefire expired.
Afghan border forces returned fire, he said, claiming they
destroyed three Pakistani military posts and killed one person.
His claims could not be independently verified. There was no
immediate comment from Pakistan’s military. However, a local
Pakistani official in the northwest accused Afghan forces of
initiating the exchange of fire in multiple areas.
The latest violence comes about a week after both sides agreed
to halt hostilities following Pakistani airstrikes in
Afghanistan at the request of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar.
The pause followed Pakistani strikes that the Afghan Taliban
government said hit a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul,
killing more than 400 people. That toll could not be
independently confirmed.
Pakistan has denied targeting civilians, saying it struck an
ammunition depot.
Separately, the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban
Pakistan, or TTP, said it had resumed attacks inside Pakistan
after observing its own three-day Eid ceasefire.
The TTP, which is separate from but allied to the Afghan
Taliban, has stepped up attacks inside Pakistan since the Afghan
Taliban returned to power in 2021. The TTP has been designated
as a terrorist organization by the United States and the United
Nations. Pakistan accuses Kabul of sheltering TTP leaders and
thousands of members who carry out cross-border attacks.
Kabul denies the charge, but Pakistan has vowed to continue
targeting TTP and its supporters inside Afghanistan until
Afghanistan's Taliban government assures that it will not allow
TTP and other militants to use the Afghan soil for attacks.
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Associated Press writer Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan,
contributed to the story.
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