Around 150 Afghans took to the streets in the capital Kabul on Saturday, chanting “death to Pakistan” in protest against weeks of cross-border shelling of two eastern provinces.
The bombardment has strained ties between the neighbours, and on Friday General Aminullah Amarkhil, the top Afghan regional border police commander offered to resign over the government’s response, saying he could not stand by as civilians were killed.
Amarkhil said two weeks ago that 12 civilians had been killed by the shells, and many others wounded. The Afghan foreign ministry said in late June that four children had been killed.
There has been no official estimate of the total death toll, but the attacks have roused anger in a country that already resents decades of perceived Pakistani meddling in Afghan affairs.
“If Pakistan does not stop firing rockets into Afghanistan, we will pick up guns and avenge our people’s bloodshed,” said Mohammad Jan, one of the protesters in Kabul.
“Pakistan must stop killing our innocent people,” he said.
A statement from the Kabul police chief’s office said around 150 people took part in the demonstration in the central Shah-i-naw district, which lasted around two hours.
President Hamid Karzai in June strongly condemned the shelling and said some 470 rockets had been fired into the volatile eastern provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar, which share a long, porous border with Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas.
Pakistan last Monday rejected Afghan allegations of large scale cross-border shelling, saying that only “a few accidental rounds” may have crossed the border when it pursued militants who had attacked its security forces.
It is impossible to verify independently exactly what is happening on the remote mountainous border.
Hot pursuit means everything less nukes
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