NSC discusses attacks from Pakistan, transition plan

KABUL): The National Security Council (NSC) on Sunday directed officials concerned to urgently take up the issue of cross border attacks with Pakistani officials.

Over the past two weeks Pakistani forces have repeatedly fired rockets and mortar shells into several Afghan villages in eastern Nangarhar and Kunar provinces.

The NSC gathered in the Presidential Palace on Sunday for a meeting chaired by President Karzai. All expressed deep concern about the attacks.

Vice Presidents Mohammad Karim Khalili and Mohammad Qasim Fahim, Senior Minister Hidayat Amin Arsala, the Foreign Minister, the Ministers of Interior and Defence, the head of the Intelligence Service, security advisors and other senior officials attended the meeting, according to a statement from the president’s office.

Those assembled discussed in detail life and property losses resulting from the cross-border attacks into Nangarhar and Kunar.

The Defence and Interior Ministers presented reports saying that Pakistani forces had fired 470 shells into the provinces, which border Pakistan, over the past two weeks.

The shelling had inflicted huge financial and human losses, the reports said.

Foreign Minister Zalmay Rassoul said he had summoned the Pakistani Ambassador to Afghanistan to protest the matter formally.

Karzai said he had discussed the issue with his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, on the sidelines of an international conference on counter-terrorism in Tehran.

He said he had asked Zardari to stop the attacks, but that the Pakistani leader had insisted that the attacks had not been carried out by Pakistani forces. Karzai said Zardari had assured him he would launch an inquiry into the incidents.

Those at the meeting also discussed the security transition plan and US President Barack Obama’s recently announced strategy to pull some troops from Afghanistan over the next two years.

They stressed the need for equipping and training Afghan forces before the security transition process was completed by 2014.

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