UPDATE - Pakistan accuses Afghan forces of killing civilian in 'unprovoked' border firing

ADDS STATEMENT FROM AFGHAN DEFENSE MINISTRY, REVISES DECK

By Aamir Latif

ISLAMABAD (AA) - Pakistan said Wednesday that its forces are responding "heavily" after Afghan forces allegedly resorted to an "unprovoked" firing along their shared border, killing at least one civilian and injuring five.

But Kabul said the Pakistani army "deployed drones" to the Angor Adda market and police station in eastern Paktika province on Tuesday "without any provocation or justification."

The latest artillery duel between the two neighbors was fought along Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal district, which borders Afghanistan's eastern provinces of Paktia and Paktika.

The deputy commissioner of South Waziristan, on US social media company X, said that Afghan forces on Tuesday night fired "unprovoked" on civilian houses.

"One civilian killed, five injured by a mortar round, many shops damaged," he added.

Pakistani forces on the border, he said, "have and are responding effectively and heavily."

Pakistani soldiers allegedly "carried out four attacks on the police station and nearby security facilities" in Paktika province, according to Afghan Defense Ministry.

"The security and defense forces of the Islamic Emirate in the area responded by attacking the nearby Pakistani military base and posts," it said, according to the official Bakhtar News Agency.

There were no casualties in Afghanstan, it added.

Relations between two neighbors have grown increasingly strained in recent years amid a series of militant attacks in Pakistan.

Pakistan accuses India and Afghanistan of patronizing militant groups involved in attacks on its soil

Both Kabul and New Delhi reject the accusation.

Separately, in a Wednesday statement, Pakistan’s army claimed to have killed nine "terrorists" in two separate security operations in its southwestern Balochistan province.

Riyaz Khaliq Khaliq