Afghanistan summons Pakistan envoy

Islamabad condemns rocket fire from Kabul

ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan has summoned the Pakistani charge d’affaires to lodge a protest over a recent alleged cross-border shelling, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Earlier, the Afghan authorities claimed that “Pakistani shelling in Paktika province killed at least one border policeman and injured three others”.

Meanwhile, the Afghan interior ministry claimed that two civilians were killed and one police soldier injured in firing in a border area of Paktika province.

An Interior Ministry spokesman, Najib Danish, was quoted as saying that eight rockets had been fired in Barmal district of Paktika.

Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Ahmad Shakib Mustaghni told the media in Kabul that Pakistani envoy Muzam Ali was summoned on Monday and sought “explanation about the rockets fired from Pakistan side” of the border.

“We conveyed our serious concerns and Pakistan was warned to immediately stop these attacks,” he added. Mutaghni said that the cross-border selling could pose threat to relations between the two countries. On 15 November, five rockets were fired from Afghanistan at Angoor Adda check post in South Waziristan.

“Pakistan has conveyed to the Afghan government its deep concern over the increasing instances of cross-border shelling from Afghanistan,” the foreign ministry statement said.

“These instances are direct threat to the common objective of peaceful co-existence between the two neighbouring countries,” it added.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2015.