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Peshawar, Mar 6: A man was killed and seven others injured after Afghan forces allegedly carried out mortar shelling on civilian areas near the Afghanistan border in northwestern Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the past 24 hours, security officials said on Friday.
According to officials, Meena Khan Wazir, a local tribesman, was killed when mortar shells allegedly fired from the Afghan side struck his house in the border town of Angoor Adda in South Waziristan district.
In a separate incident, seven people — including two women and two children — were injured when a mortar shell hit two houses shortly before Iftar on Thursday in Mohmand district. Several houses were also damaged in the attack.
Meanwhile, Mohibullah Khan, a social figure from Mohmand district, urged both the Pakistani and Afghan governments to avoid targeting civilian populations despite the ongoing tensions. He stressed that civilians should not suffer due to strained relations and conflict along the border.
Officials said security forces on Thursday carried out coordinated ground and aerial strikes against militant positions along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in southwest Pakistan, targeting dozens of posts allegedly used by the Afghan Taliban and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants.
According to security officials, the Pakistan Army conducted effective ground and air operations during the night between Wednesday and Thursday, striking 41 militant posts linked to Afghan Taliban elements and TTP militants.
Pakistan launched “Operation Ghazab lil Haq” last week after Afghan Taliban forces reportedly attacked 53 locations along the 2,611-km-long border.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have sharply deteriorated since October last year. (Agency)
