CHAGAI: At least 10 people, including three Pakistani citizens, were killed in air strikes carried out by Nato forces in Chaarban and Rabaat areas of Afghanistan’s Helmand province on Thursday.

According to official sources, some people were taken into custody from these areas.

They said the air strikes were carried out in areas close to the Pakistani border near Chagai district of Balochistan.

Dalbandin Assistant Com­missioner Ayesha Zehri confirmed that the bodies of two Pakistanis, who were killed in the Chaarban area, were brought to Prince Fahad Hospital in Dalbandin, the district headquarters of Chagai.

Pakistani citizens were in Afghanistan in connection with marble business

Ms Zehri said: “The families who received the bodies of Mohammad Arif, a resident of Quetta, and of Mansoor Ahmed, a resident of Girdi Jangal area of Chagai, said that both men had gone to visit a marble mine in the Afghan territory, but were targeted just after they crossed the Pakistani border on Chaarban gate on Thursday.”

The official sources said another Pakistani citizen, Abdul Malik Sasoli, who was also engaged in the marble business in the Rabaat area of Helmand province, was targeted along with his seven other colleagues while they were moving towards the Pakistani border on Thursday evening.

A security official told Dawn on condition of anonymity that routine activities were suspended in some parts of Afghanistan’s bordering areas close to Chagai due to drone strikes over the past few days.

After the Nato strikes, Pakistani forces tightened security along the Pak-Afghan border areas.

Both areas are said to be controlled by the Afghan Taliban who collect extortion money from marble mine owners.

The US-led Nato forces had carried out several air strikes on marble mines in the past which caused casualties. Routine movements along the Pak-Afghan border in Chagai have been suspended as panic spread owing to continuous air strikes in areas close to the Pakistani border.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2020