Pakistan denies firing rockets at Afghanistan
June 27th, 2011 - 9:07 pm ICT by IANSIslamabad, June 27 (IANS) Pakistan Monday denied reports that the country’s armed forces fired missiles into Afghan territory, killing and injuring scores of people.
A statement from the Afghan Presidential Palace said Sunday that Pakistani forces fired 470 rockets into the Afghan border regions in the past three weeks, killing 36 people, including 12 children, Xinhua reported.
Pakistani military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said Monday that the claims by the Afghan authorities were not true. On the other hand, he said, there were attacks from the opposite side.
“This is not true. No rounds have been fired into Afghanistan. In the last one month, there have been five major attacks from the Afghan side of the border where 250-300 terrorists crossed over and assaulted our border posts,” Abbas said.
He said militants came from the Afghan side into Pakistan’s Dir district and Mohammad and Bajaur tribal regions, killing 55 paramilitary and local militia and injuring over 80.
“The fleeing militants were engaged by the security forces and a few accidental rounds going across cannot be ruled out,” the army spokesman said.
Afghan officials said Pakistani rockets landed in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces in the east.
Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul summoned Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan Muhammad Sadiq to formally protest the matter.
The National Security Council gathered Sunday for a meeting chaired by President Hamid Karzai.
It directed officials to take up the issue of cross-border attacks with Pakistani officials.
Karzai said he also discussed the issue with his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari on the sidelines of a conference on terrorism in Tehran.
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