Rocket firing: Kabul issues demarche to Pakistan envoy

ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan on Thursday summoned Pakistan’s envoy in Kabul Abrar Hussain and lodged a protest over recent “cross border rocket firing,” the Afghan foreign ministry said.

A foreign ministry statement said Pakistani forces “fired rockets across the artificial Durand Line into Kandahar’s Maroof district and Kunar’s Sarkano district.”

“The Pakistani ambassador was handed over a démarche,” it added.

The Pakistan Embassy confirmed that the envoy was called to Afghan foreign ministry but did not offer more comments. Cross-border shelling has been one of the major irritants in the relations between the two uneasy neighbours.

Both countries accuse each other of failure to stop infiltration of the militants.

The Afghan ministry said a senior official Mohammad Mosa Arafi summoned the Pakistan envoy and lodged a formal protest over the firing.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2016.