ISLAMABAD - Four soldiers of Pakistan Army embraced Shahadat while one got injured in two separate attacks on Western border of the country, according to military’s media wing.
A statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) directorate on Saturday said that the first incident occurred in North Waziristan district where miscreants fired on routine patrolling party of security forces near Abakhel, Spinwam late on Friday night. As a result, 23-year old Sepoy Akhtar Hussain, resident of District Baltistan, embraced martyrdom. “In exchange of fire, two miscreants [were also] killed,” the ISPR said.
In the second incident on Pak-Afghan border in Dir, terrorists fired from across on Pakistan Army troops busy in border fencing and resultantly three soldiers embraced shahadat while one got injured.
The martyrs include Lance Naik Said Amin Afridi, 28, resident of District Khyber; Lance Naik Shoaib Swati 31, resident of District Manshera and Sepoy Kashif Ali, 22, resident of District Noshera.
The attacks come less than two months after 10 Pakistani armed forces personnel were martyred by militants in North Waziristan district and Kech district of Balochistan.
The attacks came on the day when Pakistan formally opened its Torkham border round the clock, a move which is likely to give a boost to trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Torkham - one of the 18 border crossings between the two countries that connects Pakistan’s Khyber district with northeastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan - now stays open 24 hours for cross-border movement for the first time in the recent history, Mahmood Wazir, Khyber district’s deputy commissioner, told Anadolu Agency.
The development came days after US President Donald Trump suspended peace talks with the Afghan Taliban.
Previously, Torkham crossing remained operational for 12 hours only, which would cause night-long wait for the truckers on either side of the frontier. Apart from truckers, patients from bordering Afghan provinces too had to suffer in case of an emergency due to border closure during the night.
FO summons Afghan envoy
APP adds: The Afghan Charge d’Affaires was summoned Saturday here at the Foreign Office to condemn the incident of firing on a Pakistani military contingent on the Pak-Afghan border.
“A strong demarche was made over the latest incident of firing on a Pakistan military contingent engaged in completion of fencing of Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The unprovoked firing resulted in martyrdom of three Pakistani soldiers while seriously injuring one of them,” the Foreign Office spokesperson said in a statement.
While strongly condemning the attack, it was underscored that the Afghan side was responsible for securing the areas on its side of the border, as mutually agreed on several occasions.
“Pakistan once again calls upon the Afghan government to do the needful to secure the border areas, especially along the sensitive points, to maintain the level of cooperation needed to effectively counter terrorist elements in their areas,” the spokesperson remarked.