Pakistan Chafes At Cross-border Attack

Pakistan has strongly condemned the terrorist attack, from Afghanistan, on Bajaur Scouts vehicle at Ghakki Pass in Bajaur Agency on Saturday.

An officer and two soldiers embraced martyrdom while another two soldiers were critically injured.

According to the statement released by the Foreign Office, strong protest has been lodged with the Afghan government and Afghan Consulate in Islamabad. It has been reiterated that Afghanistan should eliminate the terrorist sanctuaries and should not allow its territory to be used against Pakistan.

“At a time when a monumental effort is underway through operation ‘Zarb-e-Azb’ to eliminate all terrorists and their hideouts, Kabul’s cooperation remains essential for the success of our counter-terrorism endeavours,” it added.

The terrorist attacks from Afghanistan are not new phenomena. Earlier on July 3, there was a meeting of DG military operations in GHQ Rawalpindi primarily to discuss these border excesses as both sides were having serious complaints against each other about cross-border attacks.

Amid the blame game by Afghanistan and Pakistan over border skirmishes and territorial violations, Afghan security delegation and Pakistani military officials were agreed on June 3 to enhance coordination in future. The both sides had also agreed not to let their respective lands used for attack against each other.

Pak-Afghan Director General Military Operations (DGMO) level talks were ended on a positive note with a commitment and pledges from both sides to ensure that there should be no border violations.

There were repeated complaints from both sides that the cross border shelling primarily from the areas of Kunar and Nuristan linking with Pakistani side were the hot spot where the terrorists from both sides attacked the officials of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Earlier, it was agreed upon in the meeting that a joint delegation would visit Pak-Afghan border particularly those areas where these border violations were taking place repeatedly but ahead of the visit another attack from Afghanistan was resulted in the martyrdom of Pakistani officials.

Earlier on Saturday, militants killed a Pakistan army captain and two soldiers in a cross-border attack in Bajaur Agency.

A group of some 60 militants carried out the attack, entering from Afghanistan and firing on a vehicle carrying security forces in the Bajaur region, said Shah Nasim, a senior government administrator there. He initially said the militants had...