WANA/ISLAMABAD: Two soldiers were wounded when Afghan National Army fired at Pakistan Army’s position in Angoor Adda area of South Waziristan Agency on Wednesday.

An Afghan border guard was killed in the exchange of fire.

The Inter-Services Public Relations said that a rocket-propelled grenade-7 and a few rounds of small arms were fired on the Angoor Adda gate from the Afghan side causing injuries to the soldiers. Pakistani troops responded and targeted positions from where fire was coming.

The border-crossing point was closed after the incident. Local people said that the exchange of fire continued for more than an hour.

It is learnt that the wounded soldiers belonged to Frontier Works Organisation which builds roads and other infrastructures in border areas.

Official sources said the government had planned to construct an entry gate, ‘Bab-i-Waziristan’, along the Afghan border. Afghan authorities have reservations over the plan and asked Pakistan to abandon it.

They said that FWO workers went to the site early in the morning to resume work but came under attack. One official said the federal government had decided to establish customs station at Angoor Adda.

The sources said the Afghan government considered it a disputed territory despite the fact that a proper demarcation line had been drawn under the Durand Line agreement.

Construction of the gate was planned last week. The federal government has built gates along the Afghan border at different places in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Skirmishes at Angoor Adda took place at a time when relations between Islamabad and Afghanistan had started deteriorating in the wake of a surge in Taliban attacks inside Afghanistan and statements of the Afghan leadership against Pakistan.

President Ashraf Ghani has said that Pakistan is in an undeclared war with Afghanistan. Earlier Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security alleged that Pakistan’s spy agency was behind the recent attack on the parliament building in Kabul.

ISPR spokesman Maj Gen Asim Bajwa said that Pakistani troops had responded and targeted positions from where fire was coming.

Afghan Islamic Press quoted Deputy Governor of Paktika province Attaullah Fazli as having said: “The Pakistani forces want to set up installations at zero point which is illegal. We repeatedly took up the issue with the Pakistani side during different meetings but it did not yield any result. Last night, a clash took place.”

But talking to Dawn, Gen Bajwa denied that the construction being undertaken by Pakistan was illegal. “There was no violation. The activity was taking place on our side,” he maintained.

Afghan media said one border policeman, who was identified as Najeebullah, a resident of the Khanadar village of Orgun, was killed in the exchange of fire.

Another military official described it as a local-level tactical incident.

According to a source on the ground, uneasy calm prevails in the area.

Construction along the border has always been a controversial matter. A similar controversy in April 2013 led to a standoff in ties that continued for months.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2015

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