PESHAWAR, Aug 13: Afghan militia fired rockets and mortar shells at Pakistani border checkpoints in the northwestern tribal district of Mohmand, an official said Wednesday.

“We have received a report about firing at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border by Afghan militia Tuesday but nobody is hurt,” a senior government official told AFP.

Pakistani troops did not return fire, the official said, requesting anonymity. He said: “Intermittent firing” has been continuing in some of the areas since border tensions soared between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Relations between the neighbours were strained after Pakistan deployed troops in the semi-autonomous tribal region of Mohmand in June to block the infiltration of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda extremists from Afghanistan.

Afghan tribesmen, charging that Pakistani troops had set up checkpoints deep inside Afghan territory, attacked the Pakistani mission in Kabul in early July, damaging furniture and fixtures.

Pakistan strongly denies the charges that it has made incursions into Afghan territory.

A sub-committee of the three-way commission comprising Afghanistan, US and Pakistani security officials has visited the volatile region to probe allegations of incursions by Pakistani troops into Afghanistan territory, but its report has not been released.

In another development, Afghan tribesmen and Pakistani border forces on Tuesday traded fire when tribesmen from southeastern Zabul province crossed into Pakistan and abducted three border force personnel, an official said Wednesday.

A gunfight in the Qamardin Karaiz border area, some 490 kilometres northeast of the provincial capital Quetta was also reported on Monday, the official said.

“We do not know the reasons why tribesmen opened fire on our patrolling party and then abducted three of our men,” he said.

“Afghan border officials have assured us they would secure the release of our men from tribesmen,” the Pakistani official said.

“We have arrested 20 Afghan refugees belonging to the same tribe whose men have abducted three of our men to increase pressure for their release,” he said. —AFP