Pakistan says a “terrorist” attack staged from across the Afghanistan border has killed at least two soldiers and wounded four others.
The military’s media wing said Monday the deadly raid occurred in Bajaur, a semi-autonomous tribal region on the Afghan border.
Pakistani troops “effectively” retaliated and killed up to 10 “fleeing terrorists,” the statement claimed. It blamed the absence of Afghan authority on the Afghan side of the border for encouraging militants to plot such attacks.
The anti-state Pakistani Taliban militant group claimed responsibility for plotting Monday’s attack. A similar raid last week also killed a Pakistani solider in the Khyber tribal region.
The Pakistan military has recently begun installing a 12-feet-high robust fence along the nearly 2,600 kilometer, largely porous Afghan border to try to block such terrorist attacks from the other side, officials say.
The entire frontier, barring 300 kilometers of “inaccessible" high altitude areas ranging from 12,000 feet, will be fenced under a comprehensive border management plan.
The Pakistan army is also constructing fully-equipped new posts and forts along the border, hoping the plan will address mutual concerns about terrorist infiltration from both sides.
The Afghan government opposes the fencing plan because Kabul traditionally disputes the British colonial demarcation, objections Islamabad rejects.
Pakistan defends its border security plan, saying anti-state militants after fleeing security operations have taken refuge in "ungoverned" Afghan areas and plotting cross-border terrorist attacks to destabilize the country.
