KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – A 10-year-old child was killed and four others injured after an unexploded mortar shell, reportedly fired from Pakistan, detonated in eastern Afghanistan’s Paktia province, local Taliban authorities said.
Munib Zadran, a spokesperson for the Taliban police command in Paktia, said the explosion occurred on Friday, October 30, in the Shapuli Khula area of Paktia’s Dand Patan district.
He said the mortar shell had earlier been fired from Pakistan toward Paktia but failed to explode. It detonated after children came into contact with it.
Zadran said the child killed in the blast was 10 years old. A 10-year-old girl was also among the four children injured. He did not provide further details about the condition of the wounded.
Afghanistan remains heavily contaminated with landmines and unexploded ordnance following decades of conflict, including the Taliban insurgency and repeated clashes along the border with Pakistan over the past year. Unexploded devices continue to pose risks to civilians, particularly children who may encounter them while playing outdoors or carrying out daily activities.
According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at least 175 people were killed or injured by unexploded ordnance in Afghanistan between January and May 2026. Children accounted for 75% of the casualties.
Save the Children said in a recent assessment that nearly one Afghan child is killed or injured by explosive ordnance every day on average. The organization documented 338 child casualties between January 2025 and January 2026, accounting for nearly 70% of all victims during that period.
