ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday registered a protest with Afghanistan’s ambassador over what it called unprovoked cross border shelling, DawnNews reported.

The Afghan ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Office on Monday and a démarche was handed to him after an incident of cross border shelling from Afghanistan was reported. Four civilians in a border village in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt were reported killed in the incident late Sunday.

The foreign office condemned the shelling as “unhelpful and unproductive” and urged Kabul to take steps to prevent any repetition.

Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani said such incidents could affect the environment of peace and stability in Afghanistan.

Earlier today, speaking to media representatives on the occasion of inauguration of a two day regional anti-narcotics ministerial level conference in Islamabad, the foreign secretary had said that that Pakistan had serious reservations with cross border shelling and militant infiltration from Afghanistan.

He said “Afghan council Chief Salahuddin Rabbani’s visit to Pakistan is of great significance for the success of reconciliation process in Afghanistan."

In recent months, shelling across the porous mountainous frontier which militants can easily penetrate, has raised tensions and in early October a senior Afghan general visited Islamabad to discuss the issue.