Islamabad issues demarche to Kabul

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office has issued demarche to Afghanistan’s chargé d'affaires on unprovoked shelling by Afghanistan’s border forces and use of Afghan soil by terrorist, it is learnt.

According to sources, Afghan border forces resorted to unprovoked artillery fire on Pakistan military positions in Chitral district on April 14. The shelling continued intermittently for five to six hours, and the Afghan forces fired 35 Artillery rounds. The Pak forces gave a befitting response to the aggressor.

The demarche also mentioned that terrorists are using Afghan soil with impunity to carry out terrorist activities inside Pakistan. Despite Pakistan’s repeated requests to the Afghan government to secure Pak-Afghan border region and improve border coordination mechanism, provocations by Afghan border security forces are increasing.

This is a matter of grave concern as it undermines the spirit of mutual cooperation. Pakistan strongly condemns cross border fire violations and considers these detrimental to our efforts of maintaining peace and stability along Pak-Afghan Border. Pakistan expects stern action against the individuals involved in frequent cross border fire violations and facilitators of terrorists, the demarche concluded.