GENEVA, Mar 06 (Agencies): The United Nations (UN) rights chief said Friday that 56 Afghan civilians had been killed-nearly half of them children-since hostilities with neighbouring Pakistan intensified last week.
"I plead with all parties to bring an end to the conflict, and to prioritise helping those experiencing extreme hardship," Volker Turk said in a statement.
The neighbours have clashed along the frontier since February 26, when Afghanistan launched a border offensive in retaliation for Pakistani air strikes.
Islamabad has hit back along the border and with fresh air strikes, bombing multiple sites including the former US air base at Bagram, the capital Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar.
Turk said that since the intensification of hostilities, "56 civilians, including 24 children and six women, have been killed". "A further 129 people, including 41 children and 31 women, have been injured," he said.
And since the start of the year, the numbers are even higher, with 69 civilians killed in Afghanistan and 141 injured, he said.
Pakistan insists it has not killed any civilians in the conflict. Casualty claims from both sides are difficult to verify independently.
Meanwhile, Pakistani and Afghan troops exchanged fire at dozens of points along their border on Friday as the UN said their week-old conflict has forced the displacement of more than 100,000 people.
The South Asian nations show no signs of rapprochement in their worst fighting in years, adding to the volatility in a region also contending with US and Israeli strikes on Iran - a nation that borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Combat has included Pakistani air strikes on Taliban government installations, such as the Bagram air base north of the Afghan capital Kabul.
Afghanistan's Ministry of Defence said Taliban forces struck Pakistani military installations along the 2,600-km (1,600-mile) border, destroying numerous posts and shooting down a drone.
Pakistani security sources said they carried out ground and air operations against military targets including Kandahar, the heartland of the Taliban and where its core leadership resides, and destroyed several Afghan border posts.
Dozens gathered in Kabul on Friday to protest Pakistan's attacks on Afghan territory, chanting anti-Pakistan slogans, a witness said.
© 2026 - All Rights with The Financial Express
