Border tensions: Kabul threatens to move UN
This came as Kabul’s top diplomat in Islamabad called for an ‘urgent huddle’ of security officials and experts from both countries to defuse the situation which can bedevil their bilateral diplomatic relations.
“Pakistan should respect its neighbours and immediately stop missile attacks,” Faramarz Tamana, the deputy spokesperson for the Afghan foreign ministry, told a news conference in Kabul.
“The ministry condemns missile attacks from the neighbouring country into the Afghan province,” Pojhwok Afghan News quoted Tamana as saying. Afghan Ambassador in Islamabad Omar Daudzai has taken up the matter with Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, he added.
Mortar and artillery fire by Pakistani security forces into border areas of Kunar increased after 17 Pakistani soldiers were killed by marauding militants from the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, who have found safe havens in eastern Afghanistan after fleeing military operations.
Blame game
Pakistani officials say that fugitive TTP militants, led by their senior cadres Maulvi Fazlullah and Maulvi Faqir Muhammad are using Kunar and Nuristan as a springboard for launching attacks on Pakistani security forces – a claim recently condoned by the TTP.
Following the June 24 deadly attack on Pakistani security forces by TTP militants in Upper Dir, Maulvi Fazlullah’s spokesperson Sirajuddin Ahmed had said that Afghan militants were aiding them in cross-border attacks.
Afghan officials, on the other hand, accuse Pakistani security forces of targeting Afghan civilians in the two provinces with mortar and artillery shelling.
Ambassador Daudzai suggested that security officials and technical experts from the two countries should sit together ‘as soon as possible’ to resolve the issue.
“Afghan President Hamid Karzai will also discuss border tensions with Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf when the latter visits Kabul on July 16-17,” Daudzai told The Express Tribune.
The Pakistani premier was earlier scheduled to visit Kabul on July 9, but the trip was postponed by a week, official sources said. “Pakistani and Afghani leaders will exchange views on the border tensions and I hope they will resolve the matter amicably,” Daudzai said.
Afghan refugees
The two leaders are also expected to discuss the thorny issue of repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan, according to Daudzai. Pakistan had given illegal Afghan immigrants, mostly living in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, until June 30 to return home voluntarily.
“Pakistan, as a neighbor, should not set deadlines. The Afghan government wants the repatriation to take place with honour and dignity,” said the ambassador.
(With additional input from News Desk)
Published in The Express Tribune, July 2nd, 2012.
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Look who's talking - It's your people thrown into ours and they often visit back their homeland
@Truth is out there: True. Only if you leave them alone.
@Hussain: and it has to be seen that who will have the last laugh.
first thing, Pakistan should do is send all the refugees to Afghanistan or maybe their loving country India.
Since Afghans of Northern Alliance are always against Pakistan, let them deal with millions of refugees we have been hosting for last 33 years. If Afghans want to protect their dignity and honor, they should get rid of NATO troops and stand on their own two feet.
Afghans refugees and you talk of Honour and Dignity =D
@Maria: India is a very poor country that has over 400 million people living on povety and you want them to build a wall. Pakistan is a very rich country and if you want the wall why not built it like the Great Wall in China.
@SomeoneFromSomewhere: yes. very true for those who know.
Afghanistan should also respect Pakistan as its neighbor and stop drone strikes from its territory into Pakistan. Drones have killed many more civilians then Pakistani mortars and artillery fires have killed in Afghanistan.
Afghans have been most thank less and disloyal people on earth..... Pakistan MUST now expel all afghans from its soil who have been taking refuge in Pakistan from the same people they are now playing in the hands of
Every Afghan Refugee whether sponcered by UN or illegal should be returned by every available means including forceful eviction. They have misued this country and destroyed it brick by brick. The Afghan sponsored attacks from areas held by ISAF is not part of the UN mandate. So who is sponcering these ????
@Usman Afghans have always double crossed people who helped them
Pot calling the kettle black eh?
People learn bad habits from their friends very fast. Afghanistan is victim of this weakness. Had Pakistan, knowing well about the country, kept them at a dignified distance without succumbing to any lofty and grander strategic plans, hobnobbing them, this situation would not have arisen. What all Afghanistan has to do now onwards to gain strategic and monetary advantages is simply reverse engineer all that Pakistan did in these years, Afghanistan has "nothing to loose" deterrent, and Pakistan's nuclear weapon is no deterrent to them!
@Usman:
"I see the Indiand have been teaching them well. Afghans have always double crossed people who helped them, be warned Indians."
Indians are there not to help but to take revenge from Afghan people for invading India in the past.
@Basit:
You are saying sovereignty can be violated under certain conditions, especially a certain area is allowed to launch Terror attacks into your Territory. So, you don't mind NATO/Afghan forces doing the same in the case of Waziristan, or even Balochistan(where the Quetta shura resides), from where militants launch attacks on NATO and Afghan forces?.
The principle applicable to Pakistan should also be applicable to Afghanistan, correct?
So, tomorrow if sneak into India like they did in Mumbai 2008 you would have no problem with India targeting POK Terrorist training camps?
@Awans:
So, the concept of sovereignty goes outside the window? You want others to respect your sovereignty but you will refuse to respect theirs?
If India launches artillery gunfire on training camps in Pakistan used to train Terrorists that would be OK for you then?
Unfortunately, Afghanistan has always been a willing puppet of the Indians and allows the use of its soil for attacks against Pakistan. The two countries should police the border and build a fence that will stop the illegal movement of people across the border the way the US has a fence on its border with Mexico. This will keep out illegal intrusions.
Afghanistan will once again call for NATO air strikes and then Pakistan will start calling for apology. Deja Vu
Nobody should be confused that what's going it's pretty simple Pakistan provide safe heavens to afghan Taliban to attack inside Afghanistan on the other hand Afgans they have facilated TTP to attack inside Pakistan Tit for Tat, Both officials need to stop these proxy wars of providing these sanctuaries to the Talibans on both side of the borders.
what goes around....comes around!! OR who reap what you sow!!
@Zaid Hamid Very well said.
Rest Afghan puppet govt. should realize that they are just toy in US and Indian hands. Whenever any official spoke from Afghanistan against Pakistan, I just sit back a laugh on his words. He seems like a joker... nothing more
@Awans: So it is your opinion that a few represent the whole. I do hope to see you backing up those who talk bad about all Muslims and Pakistanis because of the militants from now on.
Looks like strategic depth being created was actually a strategic hole that was being dug. So where are the great minds that conceived this "strategic depth" theory and many other such bogus theories ?
Yes, a UN intervention is long time due for the following reasons: (1) Afghanistan needs to take all its refugees back, so that Pakistan can get rid of the burden which it has bore for the last 30 years; (2) Afghanistan needs to explain as to how a rogue person like Fazalullah, with hundreds of fighters, can sustain his presence in their territory; they must be getting atta, ghee, and other rations from some one; (3) Their territory is being used by secret agencies to stir separatists problems in Pakistan. Yes, go ahead and call the UN.
No problem, if India can't do anything about it, then Afghanistan can't do anything about it either.
Dear Afghan government,
You gave up your sovereignty rights the moment you let NATO and the US operate with impunity in your country just like we gave up our rights when we allowed drone attacks.
The TTP is using civilians as shields in Kunar and Nuristan and unfortunately the civilians will have to move from the border areas so that they are not inadvertently attacked. Artillery will have to be used to deny the area for free movement of TTP. Area denial is a legitimate military strategy and can be as or even more effective as pinprick drone attacks.
Do the Afghans have any sense of responsibility to the region? Where did the conjure up this missile attacks theory from? I see the Indiand have been teaching them well. Afghans have always double crossed people who helped them, be warned Indians.
A taste of your own medicine.
The taste of your own medicine.
Just visit Youtube and see how Indians and Afghans are celebrating the death of Pakistani Soldiers and you can see countless videos have been uploaded by Both Indians and by Afghans of Pakistani Beheaded soldiers and after that what do you expect that Pakistan will remain silent. ??. Afghanistan was the one of the last countries to accept Pakistan's existence after 1947 and recently One Senior Afghan minister stated that Pakistan dont exist and they consider India as their neighbor since Pakistan is nowhere. So Pakistani Army have every right to take action against our ungrateful neighbors and Pakistani people are with Pakistani Army.