Pakistan has protested to the Afghan government about a Taliban cross-border attack that killed at least 25 Pakistani security personnel, DPA reported.
The Afghan Charge d'Affairs was called in to lodge the protest about the attacks on seven Pakistani check posts in Chitral, a district in north-western province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, according to a statement from Pakistan's foreign ministry early Sunday.
Hundreds of militants launched coordinated pre-dawn attacks in the district that been generally peaceful during the years of Taliban insurgency in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
According to local paramilitary commandant Colonel Haroon Rashid, the attack was carried out by 400 to 500 Taliban, who entered from Nuristan province of Afghanistan.
Rashid said the government forces killed 12 militants during the attack.
There have been contradicting reports about the number of deaths.
Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, claimed Saturday that 35 security personnel, including paramilitary troops and police, were killed. A military statement put the death toll at 25.
"The activities of the terrorists are a matter of great concern to both the governments and peoples of Pakistan and Afghanistan," said the Pakistan Army in a statement. "They cannot be allowed to continue such blatant attacks from across the border."
Pakistan protests Taliban cross-border attack from Afghanistan
"It is Pakistan's expectation that ISAF (the NATO-led international forces) and the Afghan National Army would take effective measures to prevent such incursions by militants from safe havens from across the border in Kunar and Nooristan and to enhance border security," the statement said.
Intelligence reports from the area suggested that the attackers were mainly Pakistani Taliban who had fled from Pakistan's north-western region into Afghanistan following Pakistani security operations, particularly in Swat district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Bajaur district in the tribal region.
They were also assisted by their Afghan colleagues, the intelligence reprots said.
In recent months fugitive Taliban have conducted raids on security posts guarding frontiers and border villages, killing several dozen security personnel and civilians
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