Afghan army fires shells into Pakistan

PESHAWAR: Afghan forces fired five artillery shells across the border into a Pakistani village, damaging two homes but causing no casualties, officials said on Friday.

The incident took place in the Khyber tribal region. The shells exploded in Pastokai village, about 20 kilometres south of the Torkham border crossing with Afghanistan, officials said.
“Five artillery shells fired by the Afghan army hit the village,” Shafirullah Khan, the top administrative official of Khyber Agency, told AFP.

Asked whether Pakistan had lodged any protest with the Afghan government the official said: “We reported the matter to the interior ministry and now they will take further action”.

An intelligence official in Landikotal, the main town of Khyber Agency, told AFP that two shells landed in the village damaging two houses, while three slammed into nearby waste land. There were no casualties, he said.
“According to our report, the shells were fired by the Afghan army in Nangarhar province,” the intelligence official added.

Khyber Agency straddles the main route through Pakistan into Afghanistan, where around 130,000 US-led foreign forces are battling to reverse an escalating Taliban insurgency, now into its ninth year.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2010.