Afghanistan has called on Pakistan to halt cross-border shelling, warning the UN Security Council that the attacks could jeopardize already tense relations between the two countries.
A UN envoy meanwhile said that there were a growing number of “uprisings” against the Taliban in areas of Afghanistan under the Islamist group’s control.
Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul said Thursday that attacks from Pakistan into his country were “a matter of deep and serious concern” and had caused “unprecedented anger and frustration among Afghans.”
Afghanistan has accused Pakistan of staging repeated shelling barrages across the poorly policed border into Kunar province.
“We reiterate our call for an immediate and complete end to these acts, which have taken the lives of dozen of Afghans, mainly civilians, while leaving many wounded,” Rassoul told the 15-nation council during a meeting.
He said the Afghan government was in contact with Pakistan to end the attacks “holistically and resolutely.”
Rassoul said that Afghanistan wants “close and fruitful relations” with its neighbor, which has frequently been accused of backing Taliban militants seeking to overthrow President Hamid Karzai’s government.
Pakistan in turn says groups of Pakistani Taliban sheltering in Afghanistan have infiltrated the border to resume attacks on its security forces.
The UN special representative in Afghanistan Jan Kubis meanwhile told the meeting that “reports of uprisings against the Taliban in various parts of the country are a new development requiring greater analysis.”
He added, however, that the causes of the new violence are “complex.”
“Desire for local communities to have security and justice led them to taking the situation into their own hands. There is a risk of even greater fragmentation of the security environment,” Kubis said.
“Many of these localized conflicts would appear to be resistance to the Taliban, but not necessarily in support of a greater government presence.”
Afghanistan bans Pakistani newspapers
Afghanistan banned all Pakistani newspapers from entering the country on Friday in an attempt to block the Taliban from influencing public opinion via the press. The order, issued by the Ministry of Interior, adds to the mounting tension between the neighboring countries.
It focuses specifically on blocking entry of the papers at Torkham, a busy border crossing, and directed border police to gather up Pakistani newspapers in the three eastern provinces of Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan.
In a statement, the ministry said the newspapers were a conduit for Taliban propaganda.
”The news is not based in reality and it is creating concerns for our countrymen in the eastern provinces of Afghanistan,” the ministry said in a statement. ”Also, the newspapers are a propaganda resource of the Taliban spokesmen.”
The tensions between the two countries were highlighted Thursday at a UN Security Council meeting, when Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul called on Pakistan to stop shelling in the border province of Kunar, which he said has killed dozens of civilians.
He said the attacks were jeopardizing bilateral relations ”with potential negative consequences for necessary bilateral cooperation for peace, security and economic development in our two countries and the wider region.” Many Pakistani Taliban fighters have fled to Kunar and surrounding areas after Pakistan’s army pushed them out of its tribal region, taking advantage of the US military’s withdrawal of most of its forces from these Afghan border provinces in recent years.