KABUL: Nato and Afghan forces came under fire from across the border with Pakistan before Nato aircraft attacked a Pakistani army post, killing 24 soldiers, a Western official and a senior Afghan security official said on Sunday.
Pakistan has said the attack was an unprovoked assault.
The Nato-led coalition in Afghanistan has made little comment, apart from offering condolences for the deaths and admitting it was "highly likely" they had been caused by its forces.
"They came under cross-border fire," the Western official said.
The Afghan official said troops had come under fire from inside Pakistan as they were descending from helicopters, which had returned fire.
Both officials asked not to be named because the attack is so sensitive.
It has severely strained already fractious relations between the United States and Islamabad.
Protests erupt across Pakistan
Thousands gathered outside the United States (US) consulate in Karachi on Sunday to protest against the cross-border air attack.
A Reuters reporter at the scene said the angry crowd shouted "Down with America". One young man climbed on the wall surrounding the heavily fortified compound and attached a Pakistani flag to barbed wire.
"America is attacking our borders. The government should immediately break ties with it," said Naseema Baluch, a housewife attending the Karachi demonstration.
"America wants to occupy our country but we will not let it do that."
About 500 members of Jamaat-e-Islami staged a protest in Mohmand, where the NATO attack took place.
"Jihad is the only answer to America", they yelled.
COMMENTS (74)
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@hellfunder, chacha, teary., Raj, .....and other babua's: Wow. They are all over, flying in from across the Eastern fence looking for dead meat... Riding on the invisible waves ... Like vultures. (An Irish author)
@Maria: Playing hard is simply for consumption of Local Audience !!! All this talk will vanish within a couple of weeks at most and than business as usual !!! Beggers can not be choosers, and Pakistan certainly is not in any position to play any more ball games, as their partners are aware of their deceit and duplicity over past decade !!!
@Tehreek-e-Insaf FATA: Not really. We have a supply line through Iran into Herat. We can use that ...it will involve huge fees payable to Iran same as Pak charges however convoys will not be attacked so in the end the costs will be lower. And then Pakistan loses its relevance.
@hedgefunder: I see your anti Pakistan comments on every news item. Is there nothing of interest for you in India? Unless NATO comes up with a real apology and way to ensure such tragic accidents won't recur Pakistan has every right to play hardball.
Only by birth in a brahmin family one can not become brahmin . Maoist problem is an out come of economic disparity responsible for gulf between tne rich and poor . But it is also an eternal fact that both have coexisted since time immemorial and will esixt in the future as well . Maoist philosophy is also not perfect as the same is true with captilism . The clash between the two can be chanalizesed in to a constructive competition between tne two . Powerty is not only the by product of captilism but it is also a by product of powerty itself . Our poor labourers are working in Afghanistan , Kashmir , Baluchistan and every where in the world being fasilitated their dispersal by rich . The balance between rich and poor can be maintained but can not be solved through aligation on each other particularly on the instigation of some foreign forces .
@Maoist?
The last maoist leader who got killed was born in brahmin family. What is your take on it. Remove the colored glasses you will see spectrum of colors in India. Do not chose to see only one color.
Yes my Maoist brothers are learning a lot from you people , but being tackeled with due care . Indian forces are specialized by you people in this specific field of specialization in Kasmir for the last 64 years . Don't worry Maoist are niether Mohazir nor Baloch and nor Kkashmiries for us . Some Eliet is also working for them . We will pick up them for the talk . And when the Brahman of the two side will talk across the table ,solution will be there . Other wise we are not worried . Our armed forces will take care off . Terror era is now being strangulated by the world community .......?
I nominate Naseema Baluch to be our foreign minister in view of her statement and considering her ample knowledge of international relations by breaking diplomatic relations & possibly attacking NATO forces.
“America is attacking our borders. The government should immediately break ties with it,” said Naseema Baluch, a housewife attending the Karachi demonstration.
@ Naeemul Hque , Now Americans are in the mine of Black dimond and they have 100000 contracters and good market of arms in Afghanistan and adjoining areas . There is no immidiate challenge to their existance there from the giants of Asia . They will leave only after due retern of their investment ..........?
Never mind my Indian friends...
Rest assured, you will be 'liberated' by Maoists. Your hegemonic and war mongerer status doesnt suit the nation which was freed by the pacifist Mr. Gandhi. We will replace the current set up of brahman controlled religio-political-corporate elitist mafia. Maoists already control 45% of India and will soon overrun the cities.
DONT MISS IT, coming soon to the city near YOU!! THE MAOIST REVOLUTION!!
@Proud Baloch " I know how India works. Envy and jealousy is the order of the day. "
Yeah thats what Pakistani textbooks say so it must be true. LOL
@Me2: I think some Pakistani cheated him and he is not bankrupt. Envy of fellow Indians succeeding, he flushes his life's frustrations on us . Poor guy. I know how India works. Envy and jealousy is the order of the day.
@Bilal: People like you are the reason nobody can really take a lot of what Pakistan says seriously. The thing about people like you is that they usually seem to forget that you need more than a made up claim to succeed in that which also requires twisted, conceivably fact based, support to make it realistic. What you said was not even a nice try. Being asleep all by itself at a check post is messed up in itself. But, also, lets see you sleep through the noise of a helicopter that close and people talking over the noise as it obviously wasn't some kind of covert operation. (which actually supports provocation claims and the equipment they had also showed they weren't expecting the situation)
@Down with the hedgefunds: That guy hedgefunder is so idle and so Indian. A character severely affected by huge losses on the market. I know these guys. They lose it. Please give him an allowance.
@hedgefunder and homa... both of you sound like extremely anti-Pakistan elements to me. hedgefunder your every comment is full of hatred and unnecessary criticism. like it's coming from someone who is very ignorant and biased towards America. you probably are an American or some burger elite kid from Pakistan who still believes in this war against terrorism BS. I just hope you are not living inside Pakistan, but if you are you should be kicking out along with all those American agents.
And Homa..it is just shocking to see how stupid some people are. the whole world is debating who initiated first, there is no argument about whether nato was involved or not. and you come up with your own theory that you made up while you were sitting home and getting bored. both of you need to get a life!
@Stevenson: You are not a Paki (a western neo) then why stir trouble between Paki and Indians?.
Pakistan should send regular army and anti aircraft missiles to the border areas with 27/7 airforce support. The soldiers should be given clear cut orders to shoot at sight without warning and never let intruders to escape. The soldiers posted in those areas are confused. They cannot distinguish between a friend and enemy untill they are fired upon and sometimes its too late. Every moving object, other than our own soldiers should be declared enemy combatant. No civilians should be living or traveling in those areas. The other option is to withdraw and let NATO dela with it. Our soldiers are best in the world and they are dying like sitting ducks. They cannot fight with one hand tied.
@Homa: Ermm... I believe NATO has admitted the attack.
It was an inside job by their own people...You see folks… this game can be played by everybody!
Yes, Mumbai massacre???
@jan: Why do you say terrorist were crossing from Afghanistan into Pakistan and not the other direction? Seems likely terrorist were near the Pakistani border post and opened fire on troops in Afghanistan to draw NATO fire against the Pakistani base. However, we really need to wait for an investigation. In the mean time, Pakistani cuts off supply routes to NATO ?!? What is needed is better cooperation, not retaliation. Increasingly sentiment in the US is cut off all aid to Pakistan, develop supply route thru Uzbekistan, hand over responsibility to Afghanistan, make peace.
I smelled the stench of Indians on this news the moment i saw something bad about Pakistan in the heading.
If we go down we will take our indian brothers down with us
NATO and India should be crystal clear that in event of war there will be millions of Pakistanis alongside their army and then we will write the End Game of Afghanistan with your blood
Pakistan Paindabad
@Meekal Ahmed: You haven't learned by now that half the comments on Pakistani news sites are by Indians used fake and real names. They are the real ones behind all the criminal acts that they send their Afghani lackeys to do against Pakistan. The Indians want to treat all of Pakistan like they terrorise Kashmir.
@Umer: For comic level please refer to Minister Malik: blaming the whole world if a person dies in Pak and using comic words.
@Mohammad Stop this honor ..honesty game, NATO has already accepted !
@Assalam-o-Allaikum Warahmatullah @Homa
Probably you didnt read NATO's (North American TERRORIST Organization) response that it is "HIGHLY LIKELY" !!
@ED: Why do those indians sticking their nose every time some bad happen to pak
Well the answer is very simple !! Its due to their sins, that they have neighbours like you, and they certainly should be concerned as to what happens in the neighbourhood as they have lot to lose, unlike you !!
@Marium: You forgot to add non-state actors and strategic terrorists.
Why do those indians sticking their nose every time some bad happen to pak .
@ Mohammad
sigh, The lack of faith of our own citizens even at times when we may be right is just appalling. Anyways sir
a. Why would NATO come up with a story pertinent to self defence if what you claim is true? Would it not have been simple saying that the location was compromised and we were looking after the bodies of the soldiers after the taliban had take over of the check post?
b. You did have a burial today, maybe specialists like you should demand the bodies being post-partum to get the exact time of death. Maybe your theory will have a higher probability of sticking then, Criticism for the sake of it does not serve well for any nation.
@Dr.A.K. Tewari: ''we can also send them through space as well , if required ''
LOL
@Homa: NATO said its ''highly likely'' their helicopters were involved, they are sending their condolences. and here you are the biggest intellgience officer saying it was an inside job. you've taken conspiracy theories to comic levels.
@ Hedgefunder
ahhh, I wanted to resist it but you leave me with little option so lets address one thing at a time.
a. Do also note that your Nation was wrong in creating the monster it can no longer control, namely Taleban !!!! Ans: Lets dig within the unbiased history books and see what led to the creation of the Afghan Taliban, namely the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Who might I ask was the biggest contender of Soviet at that time ? Am sure you would have the answer to that. Fact : Pakistan Backed by the US trained the Afghan Taliban to fight against the Soviet, thus it was a proxy war being fought on behalf of the US. Ammunition provided by the US, training provided with specialists from both side. Its just ironic how Frankenstein ends up biting you in the a* just a few decades later. Thus , before the blame game, lets get our facts right shall we?
b.They were also wrong to train Jihadis to fight their proxy wars in Kashmir !!! Too many wrongs, simply do not make it right!!! Lo-behold I actually agree with something you are saying. However , is Pakistan the only nation using such proxy tactics,? Should you not divulge in the history of RAW, and some of its heroics in Balochistan and in the past East Pakistan before pointing fingers. As you eloquently said too many wrongs do not make a right.
The result : Its easy pointing fingers towards a single nation, that perhaps is faced with a bigger challenge than you or the United States would fathom. Its easier talking about terrorism when it hits you once in a blue moon , as it did with the United States in 9/11. Why do you not have an out and out war in Kashmir to get rid of the militants?? Because the collateral damage it will inflict will serve as a further impetus to innocent taking up arms against the Indian Government. That is the problem that the short sighted policies of the US and the blind faith of people like you in whatever has been fed by the US and its cronies has led this region to face. You cannot fight terrorism by acting as terrorists. There is a thin line between justice and revenge. America has been on the losing end , until it accepts its folly and sits down to come up with a solution to the Afghan problem, I can assure you not even a state like Pakistan ( who you seem to believe is powerful enough to have solutions to everything) can put an end to this misery . We all have made a mess out of this, Pakistan included, Yet we alone cannot clean it , so that the super power can win the next freakin elections!! I rest my case
@Homa, Which World do you live in, ISAF/Nato have accepted they caused this.
Its the time to come out of this nonsense war.No one is gaining any thing but just the loss of life, this is ridiculous.
This is foolish. We must have honor, and admit to ourselves that the possibility of the Taliban attacking from our border side exists. It is even possible that the military checkpoint had already been taken over by the Taliban. We must have honor, and honesty in this situation. The Muhajadeen has traditionally fought from inside our border. What would make this different? We have a problem now with the Taliban taking over our country. What will we do about it? Honor=Honesty No honesty No honor!
@Meekal Ahmed:
Could you please tell the readers why Pakistan has border checkpoints that are manned 24 hours and all the soldiers are asleep from dusk to dawn. Is it not true that infiltration takes place during this period. So it stands to reason that the soldiers were wide awake and was aware as to what was happening across the border.
@Marium: Do also note that your Nation was wrong in creating the monster it can no longer control, namely Taleban !!!! They were also wrong to train Jihadis to fight their proxy wars in Kashmir !!! Too many wrongs, simply do not make it right!!! The short sighted and adventurism policies of the Pakistan is really a cause of the problems they face internally, externally and socially too!
Well...our army were asleep during the Abbottabad raid, supposedly...
I'm usually a huge critic of Pakistan's role and accept the dual game allegations by independent and international sources and insincerity by the top brass and abuses by some of our men, and reject the usual faux 'ghairat brigade' outrage....
However, this is a pathetic excuse by NATO's 'unnamed sources'. They should admit they messed up big time, and many of our guys are sincere and have been bravely battling militants with their lives even if their leadership have been schizophrenic or betraying with the lack of truth.
Killing 24 Pakistani soldiers is no joke and there would be consequences, justifiable.
However, I believe due to the anti-American sentiment and prejudice in Pakistan, the reactionaries will take the punitive measures too far and undermine all efforts, getting the pre-text that they needed, handing the religious and nationalist extremists another win...
@Meekal Ahmed: right now there is a great gulf of opinion between white house and pentagon obama wants to leave but generals and neocons do not want this so right before bon conference they attack Pakistan so that no political solution is reached.there are over 100000 contractors in afghanistan who are running drug trade of 50 billion dollars and the defence companies who are controlled by pentagon and centcom have interests of trillions of dollars they want to carry on this war.amrica would only leave if american casualties in the region reach vietnam
India also need money and for that sake we can send the containers from so many routs , we can also send them through space as well , if required .
The pilot never said allah and NATO aircraft where seen NATO is controlled by NATO
Unlike Mumbai attacks which where by non state actors and local Muslims of Mumbai Bhagwan is not an Urdu word@Homa:
They were asleep do t say afghan sources say northern alliance
@Tehreek-e-Insaf FATA: because indians still think that there is a border between afghanistan and india
@ Babloo
Thank you for clarifying the mandate of the IMF and the WB , I thought they were non-politically motivated international ( stress on International NOT US ) institutions formed to help countries in fiscal crisis ( Which we know they are n't) . And yet we blame Pakistan for being the rouge state in the international comity of nations. For being a rouge Sir you need to have tools to inflict damage, unfortunately it seems the US has more of them than us.
Peace :)
@ Surav
Yes , we do know how they felt , as we have felt the same losing more men ( military and civilian than you can count). There is n't a solution to this problem Surav until we accept where we went wrong. WE were wrong in helping the US develop these militant outfits to fight the Soviet War in the first place. It is about time the US accepted some of its responsibility and put an end to this vengeance driven sham that has done more damage on both sides than achieve peace.
My sympathies towards the families of the dead soldiers. Now Pakistan knows how NATO felt when it was sheltering Osama and sponsoring the Taliban and Haqqanis.
@Homa: I believe you, if 26/11 and 9/11 could be inside jobs than why not this drama.
US should cut off all aid, direct and indirect through WB, IMF.
@ MD
The incident is controversial ?
a. Had their been firing from the Pakistani side, do you think that the NATO headquarters would not have been informed immediately of the incident and probably issued a report on Pakistan backtracking ? It was a browny point for NATO had it done that, as they could have proved again how the failure in Afghanistan was due to Pakistan not doing more and siding with the enemy. It took them one day to come up with the theory that it was self defence. Does not stick.
. Secondly do the math 24 of ours and O ( DUCK) of theirs. How many times have you seen that happening when there is cross border firing between two well trained armed forces? I agree that the sleeping theory seems far-fetched, as radars must have detected the helicopter , plane whatever entering Pakistan ( hopefully). Yet self defence come on.
@Jameel:
You response is due to your ignorance about military procedures.
Only Sentries guard at night and rest sleep. The same is being practiced in all armies throughout in the recorded history of 5000 years.
Some other measures are also taken which I do not like to discuss here.
@Marium: So tell me , as to what have done to change this?? or for that matter anything else in your country????? Not a lot ! I guess !
@Down with the hedgefunds: Your user name says it all !!! Need i say anything further??
@Bilal Dear NATO our soilders died in cold blood. They were asleep when killed
Dude, Pak troops were not in the barracks, they were manning an international border post. They are supposed to guard the border day and night, at least, a dozen or so troops must have been on sentry duty at the time of attack. Another important fact one should keep in mind is that NATO troops wouldn't have traveled from deep inside Afghanistan to Pak border just to kill a couple of dozen Pak soldiers, because, there was nothing for them to gain by it. The truth is not as simple as Pakistani authorities are trying to project. Either there must be some kind of misunderstanding that resulted in the exchange of fire or there is a more sinister truth which both sides are trying to hide.
Hail NATO. Now our army generals will think twice before opening fire on these aircraft. The pakistanis are playing a double game and they will pay for that
@headgefunder, how many times have the NATO actually thought about their actions? If they had they would not have incessantly made a fool of themselves in Iraq and Afghanistan. or were the US troops thinking rationally about what they did in Guantanamo Bay.. ?
Its easy to consider the death of 28 people as damage when it does not happen to your own. Let me be insensitive and say for once : That the US had 9/11 coming considering the plundering it had being doing in the rest of the world... " Hence the damage", However, unlike you I know how to respect humanity and thus would condemn the action as a loss of precious lives rather than damage.
Why no one talking about the terrorists who crossed into Pak from afghan after this attack, it was a cover fire
Sounds like our military alright. Such a sensitive job and everyone is asleep.
@Meekal Ahmed: You are right ! According to reports, NATO acted in self defence, as they came under fire from across the border. But the questions remain as to the communications between Pakistanis and NATO/ISAF, as there simply can not be such lack of contact in such a Theatre of War !!!
@Bilal:
All the border guards were asleep? So who was guarding the border?
@Dr.A.K. Tewari: Now, you really are out to upset few people here !!! Why go after someone else's roti???Bhai India does not need to act as domestic servant to anybody, they are doing ok as observer of this charade being played out in the neighbourhood!.
The attack on pakistani soldiers by NATO chopper is a baseless fabrication. No such attack took place. Where is the evidence? Pakistan needs to show the world credible evidence to prove that NATO did it. It is not providing any evidence so far. The pilot of the helicopter was last seen using the word allah in an interrogation video released on the internet. This proves that the pilot of the helicopter was a pakistani muslim. It was an inside job by their own people. You see folks… this game can be played by everybody!
@Dr.A.K. Tewari: And India plans to FLY the containers from India to Afghanistan through SPACE. You gotta be kidding.
@hedgefunder: You really need to get a life! Posting none sense all the time doesn't do you any good.
They cannot do anything but sulk.
India is also eager to earn money through grabing the contract of NATO supply .
Of course they must have come under fire for such a strong response in reply, hence the damage!!! Its really time for Pakistanis to come clean and start some basic self examination of their attitude and effort in this War on Terror, as their sincerity and actions leave lot to be desired!!!! Its obvious that the statements coming out of Islamabad and GHQ are for local public consumption, and really lack any conviction or answers about their role in the border regions and also in NW !!!
Vienna,November 27,2011 Jihad was the only answer implemented on September 11,2001. There is no alternative to Jihad any more. Musharraf General has no alternative. He should come back to lead Pakistan to glory on air high in the sky. Taravadu Taranga Trust for Media >Monitoring TTTMM India --Kulamarva Balakrishna
Excuse me !!!
Dear NATO our soilders died in cold blood. They were asleep when killed