Pakistan summons Afghan envoy over shelling

Pakistan on Wednesday summoned Afghan envoy to the Foreign Ministry and was lodged a formal protest over cross-border mortar fire from the Afghan side in North Waziristan tribal region which killed two Pakistanis yesterday.

Security officials in the region said earlier that several rockets were fired from Afghan side of the border into Pakistan Ghulam Khan border region and killed at least two persons. The rockets had hit a house.

“The Afghan Charge d’ Affaires was called to the Foreign Office last evening and a strong protest was lodged over the unprovoked mortar fire by the Afghan Border Police on 24 September 2013 in North Waziristan, which resulted in the shahadat (martyrdom) of 2 civilians and injury to another,” the Foreign Ministry said.

While conveying serious concern of the Government of Pakistan at this cross-border fire violation, the Afghan authorities were asked to prevent the recurrence of such incidents, a Foreign Ministry statement said.

It was emphasized again that such incidents undermined border coordination and cooperation mechanism in place and were detrimental to cooperative ties between the two brotherly countries, the Foreign Ministry said.

Pakistan and Afghanistan accuse each other of cross-border shelling which usually increase diplomatic tensions. It was not clear as to who had fired the rockets as NATO and Afghan forces routinely engage with the Taliban militants on Afghan side of the border.

It is the second firing incident from Afghan side time this month which caused casualties.

Afghan troops fired in Pakistani area of Balochistan last week and had killed five Pakistani nationals.

Pakistan had also lodged protest over the previous firing incident.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=41773

Posted by Tahir Khan on Sep 25 2013. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.