QUETTA, Pakistan: Pakistani authorities on Thursday said one person was killed and 11 were wounded when Afghan Taliban forces fired mortars toward civilians near the southwestern Chaman border crossing, reflecting increasing tension between the neighboring nations.
The latest violence follows a series of deadly incidents and attacks that have strained relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers in recent months. It was not immediately clear what preceded the shots near Chaman, a key trade route between the two sides.
Thursday’s ongoing violence came days after seven Pakistani civilians were killed in the across-border shelling by the Taliban forces. No military spokesman was immediately available for comment and there was also no comment from the Afghan Taliban.
Akhtar Mohammad, a doctor at a hospital in Chaman, said staff there received 12 wounded people following the clashes. One of them later died and some of the injured were listed in critical condition.
Abdul Hameed Zehri, a government administrator in the town of Chaman in Baluchistan province, also confirmed the casualties. Security officials say Pakistan’s army responded to the Afghan fire, but did not give further details.
Authorities say mortars fired by the Afghan Taliban forces also hit a truck near Chaman. They say accused the Afghan Taliban forces of intentionally targeting the civilian population.
Afghanistan’s Taliban seized the Afghan capital of Kabul last year. Since then, the countries have traded fire mainly over lingering disputes about Pakistan’s construction of a fence along the Afghan border. Incidents of militant attacks on Pakistani security forces have also increased since the country’s new army chief Gen. Asim Munir took the charge on Nov. 29 and replaced Qamar Javed Bajwa.
On Thursday, US CENTCOM chief Gen. Erik Kurilla visited Pakistan and met with Munir in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, according to a military statement. The two military leaders discussed a range of issues, including the regional stability and security cooperation. The statement said Kurilla also visited the northwestern border town of Torkham near Afghanistan.
Earlier this month, Pakistan’s Embassy in Kabul came under gunfire in an attack that was later claimed by the Daesh group. Pakistani officials at the time had called the incident an attack on its envoy there. Islamabad also has said Afghanistan’s rulers are sheltering militants who carry out deadly attacks on its soil.
Pakistan: Afghan Taliban shell border town, killing civilian
https://arab.news/52fnt
Pakistan: Afghan Taliban shell border town, killing civilian
- Latest violence follows a series of deadly incidents and attacks that have strained relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers in recent months
‘A den of bandits’: Rwanda closes thousands of evangelical churches
- A 2018 law introduced new rules on health, safety, and financial disclosures, and requires all preachers to have theological training
- Observers say the real reason for the closures comes down to control, noting that even those who complied with the law had been shut down
- President Kagame has described the church as a relic of the colonial period, a chapter of its history with which the country is still grappling
KIGALI: Grace Room Ministries once filled giant stadiums in Rwanda three times a week before the evangelical organization was shut down in May.
It is one of the 10,000 churches reportedly closed by the government for failing to comply with a 2018 law designed to regulate places of worship.
The law introduced new rules on health, safety, and financial disclosures, and requires all preachers to have theological training.
President Paul Kagame has been vocal in his criticisms of the evangelical churches that have sprouted across the small country in Africa’s Great Lakes region.
“If it were up to me I wouldn’t even reopen a single church,” Kagame told a news briefing last month.
“In all the development challenges we are dealing with, the wars... our country’s survival — what is the role of these churches? Are they also providing jobs? Many are just thieving... some churches are just a den of bandits,” he said.
The vast majority of Rwandans are Christian according to a 2024 census, with many now traveling long and costly distances to find places to pray.
Observers say the real reason for the closures comes down to control.
Kagame’s government is saying “there’s no rival in terms of influence,” Louis Gitinywa, a lawyer and political analyst based in Kigali, told AFP.
The ruling party “bristles when an organization or individual gains influence,” he said, a view also expressed to AFP by an anonymous government official.
‘Deceived’
The 2018 law requires churches to submit annual action plans stating how they align with “national values.” All donations must be channelled through registered accounts.
Pastor Sam Rugira, whose two church branches were shut down last year for failing to meet fire safety regulations, said the rules mostly affected new evangelical churches that have “mushroomed” in recent years.
But Kagame has described the church as a relic of the colonial period, a chapter of its history with which the country is still grappling.
“You have been deceived by the colonizers and you let yourself be deceived,” he said in November.
The closure of Grace Room Ministries came as a shock to many across the country.
Pastor Julienne Kabanda, had been drawing massive crowds to the shiny new BK Arena in Kigali when the church’s license was revoked.
The government had cited unauthorized evangelical activities and a failure to submit “annual activity and financial reports.”
AFP was unable to reach Kabanda for comment.
‘Open disdain, disgust’
A church leader in Kigali, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the president’s “open disdain and disgust” for churches “spells tough times ahead.”
“It is unfair that even those that fulfilled all requirements are still closed,” he added.
But some say the clampdown on places of worship is linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which around 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, were slaughtered.
Ismael Buchanan a political science lecturer at the National University of Rwanda, told AFP the church could sometimes act as “a conduit of recruitment” for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the Hutu militia formed in exile in DR Congo by those who committed the genocide.
“I agree religion and faith have played a key role in healing Rwandans from the emotional and psychological wounds after the genocide, but it also makes no sense to have a church every two kilometers instead of hospitals and schools,” he said.
Pastor Rugira meanwhile suggested the government is “regulating what it doesn’t understand.”
It should instead work with churches to weed out “bad apples” and help them meet requirements, especially when it comes to the donations they rely on to survive, he said.
