Cross-border shelling: FO summons Afghan charge d’affaires

Strong protest lodged over mortar fire by Afghan Border Police in N Waziristan.

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan has lodged protest with Afghanistan over what it called ‘unprovoked mortar fire’ by the Afghan Border Police in North Waziristan Agency on Tuesday, killing two civilians and injuring another.

The Afghan Charge d’Affaires was called to the Foreign Office and a strong protest was lodged over the unprovoked mortar fire by the Afghan Border Police on September 24, 2013 in North Waziristan, which resulted in the killing of two civilians and injury to another, a statement issued by the foreign ministry said here Wednesday.

It said Pakistan conveyed its ‘serious concern’ over the latest border violation. “The Afghan authorities were asked to prevent recurrence of such incidents,” it added.

The statement cautioned that such incidents undermined border coordination and cooperation mechanism in place and were detrimental to ties between the two countries.

This was the second time Pakistan summoned a senior Afghan diplomat in a week over border attacks.

Foreign office also lodged a similar protest on September 18 with Kabul after Afghan security forces killed five Pakistani civilians in an area close to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Balochistan. The incident took place in the Qamar Din Karez area, 350km from Zhob.

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have shown signs of improvement following the visit of President Hamid Karzai to Islamabad last month.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th, 2013.