ISLAMABAD, July 26: Pakistan said on Saturday the situation on its border with Afghanistan was stable despite two successive days of more Afghan mortar and rocket fire in the Mohmand Agency area that caused no casualties and was not retaliated.
But a foreign ministry spokesman called the intermittent fire along the border since last month as “minor divergences” that should not block a strategic convergence between the two neighbours and partners in the war on terrorism.
The spokesman, Masud Khan, told reporters at a news briefing that President Pervez Musharraf had a “substantive conversation” with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai on Friday on a telephone hotline.
“There is no move to renegotiate the Durand Line,” he said in reply to a question. “This question is closed, and there is a proper Pakistan-Afghanistan border. It is recognized and it is verifiable through modern technical means...It is delineated on the maps and both sides know where the line between Pakistan and Afghanistan is.”
In a prepared statement, he said the Afghans fired mortar bombs and rockets on Pakistani positions in the area on July 24 and 25 but the attacks were not retaliated. “There was no casualty on our side.”
“We fully respect the Pak-Afghan border,” he said and added: “The situation in the area is stable. No major incident along the border has taken place.”
Mr Khan said a sub-committee set up to make ground check along the border and of the recently established Pakistani posts could not go to the area on Friday due to lack of coordination.
