Islamabad: Taliban militants from
Afghanistan launched yet another cross-border raid into
Pakistan, attacking a check post and killing a Pakistani
soldier on Monday, while four children were injured by rockets
that tribesmen said were fired from Afghan territory.
Reports said that over 100 Afghan Taliban attacked a
paramilitary check post in Kitkot area of Bajaur tribal region
early this morning, killing a soldier and injuring another.
Several attackers were killed when troops at the post
retaliated.
Chief military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas confirmed
the attack on the post located almost three kilometres from
the border with Afghanistan.
Since Bajaur Agency had been cleared of militants by
the army, the attack was launched "from the other side", he
told the media.
In a separate incident in North Waziristan tribal
region, four children were injured when rockets fired from
Afghan territory landed on homes, local tribesmen said.
The injured were taken to the main hospital in
Miranshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan.
One child was in critical condition, doctors said.
Tribesmen said scores of rockets landed in Bang Dar
border village and some hit houses.
It could not immediately be ascertained whether NATO
or Afghan forces fired the rockets.
Today`s incidents are expected to add to growing
tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, observers said.
Officials of the two countries have traded angry
charges about shelling in each other`s territory over the past
few days, triggering a diplomatic row.
The governments of both countries summoned ambassadors
to the foreign ministries to lodge formal protests.
Islamabad says armed militants from Afghanistan
entered Pakistani areas and launched five attacks in the span
of a month on border checkpoints and villages, killing nearly
40 soldiers and injuring 80 others.
Afghan authorities say Pakistani forces have fired
hundreds of rockets and artillery shells into Afghanistan`s
eastern Kunar and Nangrahar provinces, killing dozens of
people, including women and children.
Tension along the border has increased at a time
when Pakistan and Afghanistan have formed a joint peace and
reconciliation commission to work jointly to bring the Afghan
Taliban to the negotiating table.
PTI
