Afghanistan, Pak to talk about cross-border raids

Kabul and Islamabad have recently traded sharp claims about different Taliban groups raiding across the border in both countries.

Pakistani and Afghan military officials will meet in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad this week to discuss the contentious issue of cross-border raids by militants, officials said on Monday.

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Kabul and Islamabad have traded sharp claims against each other about different Taliban groups raiding across the border in both countries. The US-led International Security Assistance Force joined in the fray, rebutting Pakistani claims that the US military had ignored target information about Afghan-based Tehreek-e-Taliban sites.

The Afghanistan and Pakistan military officials will investigate recent attacks, discuss coordination and find ways to prevent attacks, Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Janan Musazai said.

Pakistani military officials have rejected reports of attacks on Afghanistan from Pakistani soil and said that during the past year, Pakistani Taliban fighters based in Kunar and Nuristan carried out 15 cross-border attacks that killed over 100 Pakistani personnel and civilians.

However, the Afghan Taliban have joined the Afghan government and ISAF to criticise Pakistani rocket attacks on Afghan territory, saying these strikes have killed and displaced a large number of people.

The coalition statement was unusual in its directness. Even at the lowest points in relations between Pakistan and the US, American officials in Afghanistan have usually left public criticism of Pakistan to more senior officials in Washington.

But with Pakistan increasingly trying to draw equivalence between Afghan Taliban havens in their own country and the presence of Pakistan Taliban factions in Kunar and Nuristan in Afghanistan, the coalition pushed back unequivocally on Sunday.