Pakistan Protest After 25 Killed In Raid

Pakistan has protested to the Afghan government following a cross-border strike by militants from Afghanistan that killed at least 25 Pakistani security personnel.


Pakistan's Foreign Office said it had summoned the Afghan charge d'affaires to lodge an official protest following the August 27 attacks targeting Pakistani checkpoints in Chitral, a district in Pakistan's northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.


Hundreds of militants from Afghanistan are reported to have crossed the border to carry out the coordinated pre-dawn attacks.


An official Pakistani statement put the number of Pakistani dead at 25. But news reports quote other officials as saying at least 35 troops and police were killed.

Pakistani forces said they killed at least 12 militants in the fighting.


A Pakistani Foreign Office statement said Pakistan expects that NATO-led forces in Afghanistan and the Afghan National Army will take effective measures to prevent any future such incursions by militants from Afghanistan's Kunar and Nuristan regions.


Reports say many Pakistani Taliban have moved into the Afghan zones, fleeing Pakistani offensives and following a withdrawal of some U.S. troops from the areas.


compiled from agency reports