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A Pakistani paramilitary soldier was killed and seven others wounded in cross-border exchanges of fire with Afghanistan's forces, a security source said Saturday, while hundreds of Afghans protested against the deadly air strikes that sparked the clashes.

Sporadic fighting, including with heavy weaponry, erupted overnight between border forces on the frontier between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan and Khost province in Afghanistan, officials from both countries said.

The exchanges of fire come after Afghanistan's Taliban authorities accused Pakistan of killing 46 people, mainly women and children, in air strikes near the border in the southeastern province of Paktika this week.

A Pakistan senior security source said they targeted "terrorist hideouts", though Islamabad has not officially confirmed carrying out the bombardment.

"One frontier corps (FC) soldier has been reported dead, and seven others have been injured," a senior security source at the border told AFP, adding clashes took place in at least two locations in Pakistan's border district of Kurram.

The Afghan defence ministry said on X that "several points" across the border with Pakistan "where the attacks in Afghanistan were organised... were targeted in retaliation".

A provincial official in Khost told AFP the clashes forced residents to flee border areas, but that there were no reports of casualties among Afghan forces.

In Khost city, the provincial capital, hundreds of Afghans demonstrated against Pakistan on Saturday, calling for accountability for civilian deaths.

Protester Najibullah Zaland said they demanded global economic pressure on Pakistan to prevent such incidents.

"We gathered here today to raise our voices to the world," he told AFP.

"A path to peace must be put in place, or else the youth will not stay silent."

The demonstrators praised the Afghan forces, with one protester, Rashidullah Hamdard, saying "our fighters gave them a strong response, and we stand with our forces".

"We demand the world hold the Pakistani military accountable for these cruel and foolish attacks," Hamdard said.

- 'Red line' -

The strikes were the latest spike in hostilities on the frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with border tensions between the two countries escalating since the Taliban seized power in 2021.

Islamabad has accused Kabul's authorities of harbouring militant fighters, allowing them to strike on Pakistani soil with impunity -- allegations the Taliban government denies.

Skirmishes along the frontier escalated after Pakistan's military conducted deadly air strikes in Afghanistan's border regions in March, which Taliban authorities claimed killed eight civilians.

The UN assistance mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, called for an investigation into the "credible reports" of civilian deaths, as the UN children's agency UNICEF said "children are not and must never be a target".

"UNICEF is deeply saddened by reports that at least 20 children have been killed in an attack near the border in eastern Afghanistan," regional director Sanjay Wijesekera posted on X.

The strike comes after the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) -- who share a common ideology with their Afghan counterparts -- last week claimed a raid on an army outpost near the border with Afghanistan, which Pakistan said killed 16 soldiers.

"We desire good ties with them (Kabul) but TTP should be stopped from killing our innocent people," Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a cabinet address on Friday.

"This is our red line," he added.

Pakistan has been battling a resurgence of militant violence in its western border regions since the Taliban's takeover in Afghanistan.

In 2024 alone, the military has reported 383 soldiers and 925 militants killed in various clashes.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/wyHrJ1t