Afghan general claims fresh Pakistan shelling

[Guest guest]

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/06/201162714038149794.html

Afghan general claims fresh Pakistan shelling

Pakistan denies accusation that hundreds of its mortars and rockets were fired

into eastern Afghanistan provinces.

Mujib Mashal Last Modified: 27 Jun 2011 15:29

Afghanistan has levelled fresh accusations against Pakistani forces for shelling

its border areas, despite denials from Pakistani officials.

Ratcheting up tensions between the two neighbours, a senior Afghan border

security official said that dozens of mortars landed on Sunday in the eastern

Kunar province, injuring and killing several.

" Only yesterday, at 4am, about 35 rockets landed on villages in our Kunar

province, " General Aminullah Amarkhail, commander of the eastern border police,

told Al Jazeera on Monday.

" Village elders tell us at least 20 people were killed, but we have not been

able to confirm because the area is very far and difficult to get to. "

Amarkhail's claims come a day after Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, accused

Pakistan of firing 470 rockets and mortars into Kunar and adjoining Nangarhar

province over the past three weeks.

He said the bombardment had killed 36 people, including 12 children, and

demanded that they " be stopped immediately " .

Amarkhail put the total number of rockets at 570. " In one month, hundreds of

families have been displaced because of these attacks, " he told Al Jazeera.

The shelling targeted areas where NATO forces have withdrawn and where Pakistani

Taliban fighters have moved in, Afghan border officials said.

Afghan military officials have confirmed that in the past two days, Afghan

forces have retaliated with force, firing into Pakistani posts across the

border.

Pakistani rejection

Pakistani officials have rejected Karzai's claims. But the Pakistani newspaper

Dawn quoted on Monday Major-General Athar Abas, the military spokesman, as

saying that " [a] few accidental rounds " may have landed in Afghanistan as their

army battles Taliban fighters in the border region.

" Pakistanis turn a blind eye and a deaf ear, like they have done in the past, "

Amarkhail said, assuming that the Pakistani officials were hinting that it was

the Taliban who fired the rockets.

" They say it could be Taliban firing. We have proof it is Pakistani forces.

There is international community here, we have technology to tell. "

He said the Taliban do not have access to the kind of mortars and rockets that

have been fired on them.

" If Taliban had such weapons - 85km-range rockets - they will take over the

entire Pakistan, " Amarkhail said.

" We wonder why is there discrepancy between what Pakistani leaders say and what

they do in action.

" In meetings and agreements they promise friendship and that they will not

invade, then they attack us. "

Amarkhail thinks the attacks might be related to Pakistan's unease about the

prospects of Afghanistan signing a strategic agreement with the US.

Marc Grossman, US President Barack Obama's special envoy to Pakistan and

Afghanistan, is in Kabul to discuss the agreement with Afghan officials.

" Our neighbours want a weak government in Afghanistan - that's why they do it.

They want to undermine us as we get ready to sign a strategic agreement with the

US. They don't want that, " he said.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Karzai said he had discussed the issue with

Asif Ali Zardari, his Pakistani counterpart, on the sidelines of an

international counterterrorism conference in Iran.

But Zardari denied that government forces were behind the shelling. The issue

has been brought to the attention of US General Petraeus, the overall NATO

commander in Afghanistan, and US Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, the statement said.

Zalmay Rassoul, the Afghan foreign minister, has summoned Pakistan's ambassador

to lodge an official complaint.

The Afghan claims come after armed fighters staged two major cross-border raids

from Afghanistan into Pakistan earlier this month.