Pakistani, Afghan officials say 5 people killed in shooting along southern border

QUETTA, Pakistan – Pakistani and Afghan officials say security forces killed five people in southeastern Afghanistan near the two countries' border.

There were conflicting claims, however, about whether the dead men were militants or Pakistani cattle farmers who strayed across the border.

Pakistani official Taj Mohammed says the men had crossed the porous border to get fodder for their cattle when Afghan security forces killed them Wednesday. Mohammad is a deputy commissioner in Zhob, which is located about 470 kilometers (280 miles) west of Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province.

But police chief for Afghanistan's Paktika province, Daulat Khan Zadran, said the men were Taliban militants killed in a confrontation with Afghan security forces.

Zadran said the bodies of three of the slain men were still in Afghanistan.