KABUL, July 14: Afghanistan will raise the issue of alleged border violations by Pakistan at a tripartite meeting of US, Afghan and Pakistani officials due in Kabul on Tuesday, a presidential spokesman said on Monday.
“Everything will be done in tomorrow’s meeting and also from now on actually directly with the government of Pakistan,” presidential spokesman Jawid Luddin said.
The three-way commission was established by Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai to enhance regional stability and address mutual concerns, including activities in the border region.
The inaugural meeting of the commission was held in Islamabad on June 17.
“We hope that we will be able to put an end to the problem as a whole and the clashes that take place in the area,” he said.
Fact-finding teams sent by the Afghan government to the border regions have concluded that Pakistani troops infiltrated Afghanistan territory, but only by a few hundred metres, Luddin said.
“There are only two points of infiltration across the border and this information was confirmed by the team that was sent to the border,” Luddin said.
“There have been incursions by Pakistan forces in Goshta and Lalpor districts but only a few hundred metres, in one case 600 metres,” the presidential spokesman said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman on Monday denied any border violations by Pakistani forces.
“Pakistan fully respects the Pakistan-Afghan border,” a Pakistan foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement.
“Pakistani troops never crossed the international border and are positioned on their own side.”
Tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan have increased recently. Last week a mob ransacked Pakistan’s Kabul embassy in protest at the border incidents. Pakistani officials have admitted the sporadic clashes, but denied incursions into Afghanistan.
Afghan tribes and representatives from the eastern border province of Nangarhar earlier claimed Pakistani troops had crossed up to 40 kilometres into Afghan territory.—AFP
