One Afghan police officer was killed and five were injured when Pakistani and Afghan border guards exchanged fire early on Tuesday, the Pajhwok Afghan News agency reported.
“The skirmish was set off by Pakistani attacks on police checkpoints in the Binshai area of the Dangam District at 4:00 a.m. [11:30 p.m. Monday GMT],” a border police commander, Col. Mohammad Ayub Hussainkhel, told the agency.
Pakistan’s Dawn TV said the shootout lasted for more than two hours, but there were no casualties.
The incident comes amid escalating tensions on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with the two states blaming each other for the violence.
The cross-border shootouts, as well as the occasional shelling in Afghanistan’s border provinces of Kunar, Nurestan and Nangarhar, have led to the resignation of the Afghan defense and interior ministers.
