Islamabad, July 7: Pakistan today conveyed to Afghanistan its “serious concern” over cross-border militant attacks hours after hundreds of Afghan Taliban fighters sneaked into a Pakistani border village and clashed with security forces and a tribal militia.
Two militants were killed and six tribesmen injured in the clashes that erupted after the Afghan Taliban attacked Nusrat Dara and Khara areas in Upper Dir district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province early this morning. The militants also torched a school in the region.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani telephoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai and expressed Pakistan's “serious concern over the activities of the militants along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, especially in Dir, Bajaur, Mohmand on the Pakistan side and Kunar on the Afghan side,” said a statement issued by the premier's office.
Gilani told Karzai that the Pakistan Army “was exercising utmost restraint despite repeated cross-border incursions” by militants from the Afghan side. “The situation needs to be defused quickly,” Gilani was quoted as saying.
Pakistan has requested the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan to convene an immediate meeting for border coordination between regional commanders, Gilani said.
He requested Karzai to ask ISAF and Afghan military commanders to join Pakistan's efforts to “defuse the situation created by the militants and to avoid any further loss of life of innocent persons on both sides.” PTI
