Chaman border firing: Pakistan summons Afghan diplomat

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs Friday finally summoned the Afghan Chargé D’affaires Sardar Ahmed Shakeeb and expressed its ”strong condemnation” of the recent incidents of ”unprovoked cross-border” shelling by the Afghan border security forces in the Chaman-Spin Boldak area, resulting in loss of life, injuries and damage to property.

One person was killed and 12 injured on Thursday, while a few days ago eight people were taken out by the Taliban and 16 seriously injured.

The summoning of the Afghan ambassador came a day after the attack at the Afghan border, as sources confide the Foreign Office was ascertaining details from the relevant quarters.

There has been criticism from many, including independent and opposition politicians, who say the Foreign Office statement was too mild and did not convey the anger since this was second time that such attacks had taken place. “It was reiterated that protection of civilians remained the responsibility of both sides and that recurrence of these incidents must be prevented. It was agreed to use established institutional mechanisms in this regard,” said the Foreign Office.

The News understands from sources in Kabul that a white flag meeting was being planned between the two sides though there has been no official announcement either by the ISPR or the Foreign Office.

The ISPR in fact come out on Thursday with a stronger statement calling the Chaman attack “uncalled-for aggression“ which saw a “befitting“ but “measured response” while avoiding targeting civilians inside Afghanistan.

“Pakistan remains committed to maintaining fraternal relations with Afghanistan. Peace along the Pak-Afghan border is intrinsic to this end,” said the Foreign Office.

The attacks on Pakistan from Afghanistan came shortly after there was an attack on Pakistan’s Chargé d’Affaires Ubaidur Rehman Nizamani in Kabul who survived the attack but his security guard took bullets on his chest and legs. Since then the ambassador has been here.

The white flag meeting is also urgent, as the Defence Ministry of Taliban tweeted that Pakistan’s security forces had opened fire and called for a negotiated settlement of the issue.

Several opposition politicians criticized the manner the government caved in to unprovoked attacks from the Taliban.

Former PPP senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar tweeted, “Our establishment is too embarrassed to even admit that their Afghan policy has been a catastrophic failure.

A friendly government in Kabul harbours TTP which kills our security personnel and bombs border posts. Who are we going to blame now? RAW [India’s Research and Analysis Wing] or the Taliban that we cheered for?”

Pakistan’s Special Representative in Afghanistan Ambassador Mohammad Sadiq while condemning the Chaman attack said the Afghan border forces resorted to unprovoked and indiscriminate firing onto the civilian population in Chaman.

“Such unfortunate incidents are not in keeping with the brotherly ties between the two countries. The Afghan authorities have been informed that recurrence of such incidents must be avoided and strictest possible action must be taken against those responsible,“ he said.