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Pakistan protests border incursions by NATO, Taliban

Other News Materials 18 June 2011 01:32 (UTC +04:00)
Pakistan has lodged protests with the United States and Afghanistan over border incursions by NATO forces and Taliban militants, a foreign ministry spokesman said Friday.
Pakistan protests border incursions by NATO, Taliban

Pakistan has lodged protests with the United States and Afghanistan over border incursions by NATO forces and Taliban militants, a foreign ministry spokesman said Friday.

The ministry said it had expressed "serious concerns" to the US embassy in Islamabad over an attack by NATO aircraft that targeted a military check post in Mohmand, one of seven tribal districts along the border with Afghanistan, DPA reported.

A joint inquiry of this incident had also been requested, the statement said.

In a second statement, the ministry said it had summoned Afghanistan's charge d' affaires, Majnoon Gulab, to lodge a "strong démarche" on the infiltration of Taliban from Afghanistan to Pakistan to carry out an attack in Bajaur district.

On Thursday, more than 150 Taliban militants from the Afghan province of Kunar raided two villages, killing five people.

An intelligence official said Thursday that 25 people had been abducted, a claim that was not verified in Friday's statement.

"The government of Afghanistan was asked to prevent such crossborder incidents from occurring in the future," the statement said.

Pakistani Taliban hiding in Afghanistan are suspected to be behind the raids.

On June 1, hundreds of fighters entered the Pakistani frontier district of Upper Dir from Kunar and attacked a border post and three villages. An estimated 27 security personnel and eight civilians were killed over two days of fighting.

A spokesman for Pakistani Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah accepted responsibility for the June 1 raid.

Fazlullah fled to Kunar after Pakistani forces launched a major operation in the northwestern region of Malakand in which Upper Dir is located. He is believed to have been joined by hundreds of fleeing militants from Malakand and Bajaur.

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