Soldier martyred as security forces, Afghan Taliban clash in Kurram.

PARACHINAR -- A soldier was martyred and 11 others, including seven personnel and four civilians, were injured when clashes erupted between security forces and Afghan Taliban in Kurram tribal district on Saturday and Sunday night over construction of a road in the Pakistani territory by the latter.

Senior civil and military officials from Pakistan and Afghanistan held a flag meeting at zero-line on Monday to defuse the tension amid a fragile ceasefire.

Kurram deputy commissioner Wasil Khan Khattak told the media in Parachinar that efforts were underway to resolve the issue through peaceful means.

Commissioner Kohat division Mehmood Aslam Wazir, Brigadier Shahzad Azeem, senior officials and elders of Kurram met with Afghan Taliban at zero-line.

Heavy clashes erupted over a dispute on the construction of a road on the lands owned by the residents of Khurlachi and Borki, which are falling on the other side of the border fence, near Afghanistan's Paktia province.

Haji Nauroz Ali, a resident of Borki, told Dawn that the lands where Afghan Taliban attempted to construct the road belonged to the local people, who had allotment and revenue record of these properties.

He alleged that claim of the Afghan Taliban was illegal and there was clear demarcation of the border. 'Successive Afghan governments had never laid claim over these lands before...