NATO commander likely to visit Pakistan on June 27: ISPR

US General will review border coordination measures with Pakistan army chief General Kayani.

ISLAMABAD: The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, US General John Allen, is likely to visit Pakistan on June 27 to review border coordination measures with Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, the ISPR said in a statement on Monday.

The meeting will focus on reviewing the progress made in the implementation of recently evolved border coordination measures and standard operating procedures.

The meeting takes on new impetus after Pakistan summoned Afghan officials to lodge a formal protest over a cross-border incident where militants crossed over from Afghanistan into Pakistan and attacked a check-post killing six soldier.

Islamabad and Washington are locked in difficult talks to repair the badly frayed ties, at their lowest point in years after a cross-border NATO air strike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November last year.

Pakistan blocked overland supply routes to NATO forces in Afghanistan to protest against the strike.

Earlier on Monday, Pakistan said Monday that seven soldiers were beheaded by militants who infiltrated from Afghanistan, lashing out at Kabul over cross-border attacks.

Pakistan already reported that six soldiers were killed in gunbattles with militants on Sunday who crossed from Afghanistan into the northwestern district of Upper Dir, a key border transit route that neighbours the Swat valley where Pakistan defeated a local Taliban insurgency in 2009.

Intelligence officials blamed the attack on loyalists of Pakistani cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who fled to Afghanistan after losing control of Swat to the army.

But on Monday, the military said 11 soldiers had also gone missing, “out of whom seven soldiers have been reportedly killed and then beheaded”.