Shehbaz condemns ‘unprovoked’ border shelling by Taliban

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday strongly condemned the "unprovoked" shelling across the Chaman border by the Afghan Taliban that killed six Pakistanis, the media reported.

Taking to his official Twitter handle, Shehbaz said that the "unprovoked shelling and fire" deserves "the strongest condemnation", noting that the "unfortunate" incident resulted in the killing of several Pakistanis and left more than a dozen injured, Express Tribune reported.

The premier urged the Afghan interim government, yet to be internationally recognised, to "ensure that such incidents are not repeated", Express Tribune reported.

A day earlier, Afghan forces fired rockets into the Pakistani territory from across the Chaman border, killing six civilians and injuring over two dozen as the rockets landed in Killi Sheikh Lal Muhammad.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement that the Pakistani forces gave a measured response to the aggression to avoid any civilian casualties.

The military's media wing further said that Pakistan had approached the Afghan authorities in Kabul to highlight the severity of the situation and demanded strict action to obviate any such recurrence of the incident in future.

Residents of Killi Sheikh Lal Muhammad said that the rocket firing started all of a sudden and that rockets landed close to their homes, Express Tribune reported.