Four soldiers killed in cross-border attack from Afghanistan

PESHAWAR: In an usual incident, four Pakistan Army soldiers were killed and four others suffered injuries when militants fired rockets on their observation post in Khyber Agency’s Tirah valley from the border areas of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province on Sunday.
Military authorities said the terrorists were stated to have fired rockets, adding that Afghan officials claimed after the attack they didn’t have a security post in the area from where the rockets were fired on the Pakistani post.
“It isn’t clear at the moment if the Afghan forces were involved in the attack or terrorists had fired rockets on our post by using their territory. But one thing is clear. It is their responsibility to secure their border and prevent the use of Afghanistan’s soil by terrorists against its neighbours,” a senior security official told this correspondent on Sunday.
Pleading anonymity, he said the attackers later escaped towards Afghanistan, though the Pakistani security forces immediately retaliated and killed most of those involved in the attack.
He said four soldiers died on the spot while another four suffered injuries.
Maj Gen Asim Salim Bajwa, the director-general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), confirmed the cross-border attack on the Pakistani security post and loss of four soldiers.
Talking to this correspondent on the phone, he said the post was located at a height of 8,000 feet at Khandwala Kandao in Tirah valley of the Khyber Agency. He said Pakistani troops deployed on the Pak-Afghan border had responded immediately by firing on the fleeing terrorists who escaped towards Afghanistan.
“Some of them were killed but since they fled towards Afghanistan we have no idea about the exact number of their casualties,” he added.
Security officials said the bodies and the four injured soldiers were later airlifted in an army helicopter to Peshawar. The injured soldiers were admitted to the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Peshawar. Military officials reported that they were in a stable condition.
Those killed in the attack were identified as Sepoy Imran Khan, Sepoy Muzzafar Shah, Sepoy Mohammad Yasin and Sepoy Ijazuddin.The wounded soldiers were Ajab Gul, Ashraf, Sikandar and Mohammad Yousaf.
The funeral prayers of the slain troops were offered at the 11th Corps Headquarters in Peshawar.
Besides several other senior military officials, Corps Commander Peshawar Lt General Hidayatur Rahman and Inspector General Frontier Corps (FC) Maj Gen Tayyab Azam attended the funeral prayers. Their bodies were later transported to their native areas for burial.
According to security officials, it’s the first incident of its kind on the Pak-Afghan border in Khyber Agency.
In the past, a number of Pakistani troops had been killed and injured in attacks staged from across the border in Afghanistan on their posts in Chitral and Upper Dir districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Bajaur and Mohmand tribal regions of Fata.
The rockets on the Pakistani post were fired from across the border only a few days after eight Afghan security personnel were killed during a clash between Pakistani and Afghan forces on the border between the two countries at Bajaur-Kunar. Three Pakistani soldiers were also killed in that incident.
The proscribed Lashkar-i-Islam militant group led by Mangal Bagh claimed responsibility for the attack through its spokesman, Salahuddin Ayubi. He maintained that six soldiers were killed and some were injured in the attack in which landmines were also used.
NNI adds: Pakistan summoned the Afghan Ambassador to its Foreign Office and lodged its protest over the cross-border rocket attack that martyred four Pakistani soldiers besides injuring as many.
Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Pakistan Janan Mosazai was called to Islamabad’s Foreign Office where Pakistan’s strong protest was conveyed to him. Pakistan demanded of Kabul to take measures on a war-footing to put a curb on such cross-border attacks.