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72 troops killed by NATO cross-border attacks in Pakistan over last three years: army spokesman

28 November 2011 21:44 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A total of 72 Pakistani troops were killed and over 250 others injured by NATO cross-border attacks in Pakistan over the last three years, said an army spokesman on Monday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

In an interview with local media Geo TV, Major General Athar Abbas, spokesman of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR a Pakistani army mouthpiece, said that the recent attacks by NATO forces on two Pakistani army checkposts in the country’s northwest tribal area of Mohmand Agency, which killed 24 Pakistani troops and injured 13 others, could lead to serious consequences.

He said that Pakistani authorities can not accept the lame excuses made by NATO forces that the attack was not deliberate or it was an act of misunderstanding.

To a question about a possible apology by NATO, the spokesman said that the apology by NATO is not enough. "We don’t accept any apology," he said.

The ISPR spokesman denied the NATO’s claim that the Pakistani forces initiated the fire and said that no fire was opened from the Pakistani side and the troops retaliated only after the killing of their soldiers by NATO attack.

He said NATO and ISAF were claiming that firing was started from the Pakistani side then they should present proof of the loss which they met by the firing from the Pakistani troops and they should tell how many ISAF soldiers were injured or killed by the firing carried out by the Pakistani troops.

According to the spokesman, when the attack was initiated, the Pakistani soldiers deployed on these checkposts immediately informed the senior officers at regional headquarters of Peshawar and main headquarters at GHQ Rawalpindi. The senior officials in army headquarters took up the issue with ISAF headquarters that attack was being launched at Pakistan Army’s checkposts. They asked them to stop the firing immediately, but the NATO officials concerned did not halt the attack.

He said that after the attack the reports came that 24 soldiers have been killed in the attack that continued around two hours even after Pakistan Army informed NATO.

He said the spokesperson of NATO should tell that why they continued to attack army checkposts after Pakistani officials clearly told them that their target are Pakistani troops and no terrorists were present in the area.

He said that to ensure safety and ruling out presence of terrorists in the Mohmand Agency a large number of military checkposts were set up in the area and NATO was well aware about the presence of these posts and IASF officials were informed whenever a new post was created so that they could have map references of these posts.