Barely hours after Pakistan’s Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf left Kabul on July 19th, artillery fire from across the border killed four Afghan civilians.
Barely hours after Pakistan’s Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf left Kabul on July 19th, artillery fire from across the border killed four Afghan civilians.Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin called the Pakistan Ambassador Mohammad Sadiq and officially warned him on July 22.
The Washington Post reported Ludin told Ambassador Sadiq: “Any continuation of such reported shelling against Afghan villages could have a significant negative impact on bilateral relations.”
Governor of Kunar province Sayed Fazlulah Wahidi told the media almost 2000 rockets have rained on the border district of Dangam over the last four months. On July 20 four civilians were killed and six injured in the district.
Afghanistan’s border areas in Nangarhar, Kunar, and Nuristan provinces have been relentlessly bombed by the Pakistan military. The authorities in Islamabad have not been able to give a satisfying reply. The perception in Kabul is that gaining Afghan territory and even leaving the strategic Kunar River on the Pakistani side is among Pakistan’s long-term objective.
Shahzada Sahed, a member of parliament (MP) who visited the border, said rockets were targeting areas up to 30 kms of the border. Schools, houses and mosques have been destroyed, and people have fled to other parts of Kunar, he told Parliament.
Protests but no retaliation
Sakhi Moshwanai, another MP, accused the Ministry of Interior of not permitting Afghan border forces to retaliate.
Abdul Zaher Qadeer, the first deputy of parliament, told members: “The issue of Kunar is not an ordinary issue … Pakistan has entered 30 km inside Afghanistan”.
The Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been working the diplomatic channels.
Janan Musazai, the spokesman, said 10 letters of protests have been sent to the Pakistani mission in Kabul. He told a press conference the subject was to be discussed at a meeting of the National Security Council on July 22.
On July 23, Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani issued a statement.
“The claims of Afghan authorities on firing 400 rockets toward border areas of Afghanistan are not authentic. … The Pakistani military targets only the points that the militias and rebels are firing from to target our forces. … The rebels and militia have killed a number of 100 civilians and military people in Dir and Chetral areas of Pakistan in 15 attacks from the border in the last year.”
