•  Kabul says 'retaliatory operations' against 'violation' of Afghan airspace by Pakistani army concluded

KARACHI, Pakistan / ISTANBUL

Border hostilities between Afghanistan and Pakistan escalated Saturday as their armies are engaged in cross-border shelling and firing of heavy artillery.

The escalation comes a day after Afghanistan’s interim Taliban administration accused the Pakistani army of violating airspace over the capital Kabul and bombing a market in the Margha region of the Paktika province bordering Pakistan on Thursday night.

Islamabad neither confirmed nor denied it was behind the attacks but said it will do everything to protect its citizens as Pakistan has witnessed a surge in terrorism which it blames on the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

On the latest developments along the border with Afghanistan, Pakistani security sources told Anadolu that exchanges of heavy fire have been taking place along the border since Saturday evening.

"Firing along the eastern border provinces, including Khost, Nangarhar, Paktika, Paktia, Kunar and Khost, is continuing, and there are reports of some casualties but we cannot confirm the figures at the moment," a security official said, accusing Afghan border forces of initiating firing.

Islamabad has yet to officially comment on the reported clashes with the Afghan forces along the 2,640-kilometer (1,640-mile) border.

According to a statement from the interim Afghan Defense Ministry, Kabul launched attacks "in response to repeated violations of Afghanistan’s airspace and airstrikes carried out on Afghan territory by the Pakistani military."

The ministry said in a brief statement that Afghan forces "conducted successful retaliatory operations targeting Pakistani security outposts along the Durand Line. These operations concluded at midnight (local time)."

Many social media videos of the border show heavy artillery fire. The exact location of the scenes was not immediately known. Anadolu could not independently confirm the videos’ veracity.

Pakistan claims the TTP militants are based in Afghanistan and accused Kabul of failing to prevent terrorists of the TTP, a conglomerate of several militant groups, from carrying out attacks in Pakistan.

Afghanistan, however, denies the charges, reaffirming its commitment not to allow its soil to be used for attacks on its neighbor.

Tensions amid top Afghan diplomat’s trip to India

The latest tensions coincide with the trip to India of interim Afghan Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi, where he met his counterpart S. Jaishankar as well as attended events hosted by the Vivekananda International Foundation as well by an Islamic seminary, Darul Uloom Deoband, in Uttar Pradesh, bordering the capital New Delhi.

Muttaqi and Jaishankar also released a joint statement in which the latter expressed “his deep appreciation to Afghanistan for its strong condemnation” of the Pahalgam attack this April in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.

The attack left 26 people dead, and triggered four days of hostilities between India and Pakistan.

However, Islamabad on Saturday raised “strong reservations” over the statement.

“The reference to the Jammu and Kashmir as part of India is in clear violation of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the legal status of Jammu and Kashmir," said Pakistan's Foreign Ministry.