KABUL: An aid group said on Monday that hundreds of Afghan families had been displaced by rocket and artillery fire across the border after Pakistan said militants implicated in recent attacks had taken shelter in Afghanistan.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said that about 200 families had been displaced from their homes, while some civilian casualties had also been reported.

The militant Islamic State group’s regional branch claimed responsibility for Thursday’s bomb attack on a Sufi shrine in Sindh whose toll has reached 90 people dead and over 350 injured.

Pakistan said militants operating out of eastern Afghanistan were behind the attack.

Amid a security crackdown, border crossings were closed and Afghan diplomats were summoned to the military headquarters and given a list of 76 “most-wanted terrorists” who were in Afghanistan, with a demand that they be captured and handed over, the army said.

Since then, Pakistan says it has killed “over 100 terrorists”, including some in camps inside Afghan territory, in shelling on Friday and over the weekend.

NRC’s country director in Afghanistan, Kate O’Rourke, said civilians had been caught in the cross-border firing.

“Whether indiscriminate or specifically targeted, such attacks forcibly displace civilians, violating international humanitarian law, and must stop,” she said in a statement.

Afghan officials said a number of special forces personnel had been deployed to the border to counter any Pakistani raids.

“If they continue their attacks we will respond in kind,” Attahullah Khogyani, a spokesman for Nangarhar province, said.

In Asadabad, the capital of Kunar province, also along the border, hundreds of Afghans gathered to protest against Pakistan and to ask foreign governments to put pressure on it.

On Friday, Afghan officials said government forces backed by international troops had killed over 20 IS fighters in recent operations.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2017