The Pakistani military has resumed artillery shelling in southern Kandahar and eastern Kunar provinces of Afghanistan as Afghanistan summons the country’s ambassador to lodge a protest over indiscriminate shelling.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan (MoFA) said the Pakistani Ambassador to Afghanistan Syed Abrar Hussain was summoned over the recent artillery shelling from the side of Durand Line by Pakistani military and militia forces over Maruf district of Kandahar and Sarkanu district of Kunar.

MoFA further added that a formal protest was lodged over the shelling with the head of the first political department Musfa Arifi warning that the shelling in such a sensitive time when the relations between the two countries has been witnessing an all time low, could prove provocative and further ignite tensions.

The indiscriminate shelling by Pakistani military stopped with the formation of the new Afghan government, National Unity Government, led by President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah in late 2014.

The Pakistani military continued to fire artillery shells in eastern provinces that caused heavy casualties and losses to the local residents of the eastern provinces.

Although the Pakistani officials rejected shelling the Afghan soil however on some occasions they admitted that the shelling were done to respond to militants activities along the Durand Line.

This comes as the Afghan and Pakistani border forces have engaged in deadly clashes along the Durand Line during the past several months, mainly due to irresponsible movements by Pakistani border forces along the line, as claimed by the Afghan officials.