Pakistan, Afghanistan start joint survey after border clash
QUETTA, Pakistan — Pakistan and Afghanistan started a joint survey agreed on following last week’s deadly clashes along the two countries’ disputed boundary in Pakistan’s southwest, officials said Monday.
The two sides agreed to conduct a geological survey of the border villages to “remove discrepancies.”
Pakistan has said that Afghan forces fired on Pakistani census workers and troops escorting them, killing two soldiers and nine civilians on Friday. Islamabad also claimed 50 Afghan troops were killed in retaliatory action, a claim Kabul denies, saying only two border policemen and a civilian were killed.
Kashif Nabi, a local administrator in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province said the surveyor teams, which included military officers, arrived in the border villages on Monday and were working “amicably.” He said the situation is calm but that the border crossing in the area remains closed.