| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan |
| Cross-Border Rocket Attacks Continue, Karzai Condemns |
| 2014-01-31 |
| [Tolo News] President Hamid Karzai has condemned a wave of rocket attacks from over the Pakistani border into eastern Afghanistan reported in recent weeks. He said the attacks would harm relations between the two neighbors. "In the past month, we witnessed 17 rocket attacks without any casualties," Kunar Governor Shuja Malek Jalala said. "Unfortunately, yesterday, a rocket hit a house in Sarkho District, neighbor to Bajawar District, and killed three and wounded five, including children." The recent wave of cross-border attacks in eastern Afghanistan is nothing new though. Kunar and Nangarhar provinces have faced random artillery shelling by the Pakistani military and rocket attacks from unknown assailants for years. "Even now, these rockets are continuously being fired, we complain every day about them and we have taken these complaints to the House of Representatives, the Senate and even the President himself," Kunar MP Haji Sakhi said. The House of Representatives has maintained that the cross-border attacks in Kunar have been on the chamber's agenda for two years, yet still no action has been taken to address the problem. It could be in spite of, or exactly because, relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan are so tense that the attacks seem to have gone unaddressed. Other than a public condemnation from Karzai like the one on Thursday, residents of the effected provinces do think enough has been done to confront the Pakistani government about the attacks. It is well known that Islamabad has been struggling to keep militant groups and tribes in Baluchistan and the Federally Adminstered Tribal Areas at bay, with a rising number of terrorist attacks targeting Pakistani military officials and installations in recent years. The border between the two countries is about as porous as a border can be, with militants, smugglers and others traveling undocumented back and forth between the two countries daily. That environment would presumably make it particularly difficult to identify responsibility for these types of cross-border attacks, let alone prevent them. |
| Posted by:Fred |