ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Thursday conveyed its strong protest and serious concern to the Afghanistan government on what the country claimed brutal murder of its 23 paramilitary personnel inside the Afghan territory.
The protest was recorded by Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz to Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Zarar Maqbool Osmani in Male, Maldives where the both diplomats were attending the SAARC Ministerial Meeting.
Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said in a statement the adviser reminded the Afghan foreign minister that in the Trilateral Summit in Ankara recently, it was agreed that both sides would not only prevent the use of their territory against each other but also take action against militants engaged in hostile action.
Aziz urged the Afghan government to take prompt action to apprehend and punish the perpetrators of the “heinous and inhumane crime.”
The Afghan foreign minister promised to convey the message of concern to the relevant authorities in Afghanistan and revert shortly.
On February 17, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban said that it executed 23 Frontier Corps (FC) personnel who have been held captive since 2010.
In a written statement and subsequent video message, the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s Mohmand chapter said that the Pakistani soldiers were killed in retaliation for continued security operations against the Islamist extremists.
In Kabul, President Hamid Karzai's spokesman, Aimal Faizi, said there was no evidence the soldiers were killed on Afghan soil, Associated Press reported.
Terrorists and extremists on both sides of the border have been “using our territories against us,” Faizi said.
“Pakistan and Afghanistan should fight terrorists jointly in order to avoid such attacks and incidents from happening,” he said.
Both Pakistan and Afghanistan routinely accuse the other of allowing militants to operate on each others soil, said the AP's report.
During the weekly briefing earlier today, Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said that the location of FC soldier's deaths was being traced, after receiving the complete information about their whereabouts they will discuss the problem with Afghanistan.
She also rejected the reports of sending Pakistani soldiers to Saudi Arabia, DawnNews reported. The spokesperson clarified that Pakistan was not sending the soldiers to Saudi Arabia nor does it have any deal with anyone related to it.
Aslam said that the talks between Afghan Taliban and the government of Afghanistan in Dubai was an internal matter.