Pakistan lodges protest to US, UK

Crocker, Frankley summoned to Foreign Office
Joint Pak-NATO investigation convened

Islamabad—Pakistan on Tuesday protested with United States and United Kingdom over an attack on a Pakistani post in Shawal area in North Waziristan Agency by US-led coalition forces on Monday in which one FC soldier was killed and two injured.
The US ambassador to Pakistan, Ryan C Crocker and British High Commissioner to Pakistan Robert Frankley were summoned to the Foreign Office and were handed over a complaint.
Pakistan strongly protested the incident with US stating that Pakistan has been a frontline coalition partner in war against terrorism and one of its check posts was attacked in which one paramilitary forces jawan embraced Shahadat and two others were injured. A strong protest was also lodged with British High Commissioner Robert Frankley over the matter. According to Foreign Office, Richard David, commander of Allied Forces in Afghanistan who is commander of ISAF, hails from United Kingdom.
Both US, UK were informed that Pakistan will not tolerate any such incident in the future.
The American and British ambassadors were told “the coalition authorities should investigate the incident and ensure that such incidents do not occur in future,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Both expressed deep regrets and said that the incident was being investigated.”
Afghanistan’s NATO force said the incident happened following an insurgent rocket attack near a NATO base on the border.
“Shortly afterwards a group of insurgents was identified moving east toward the Pakistan border,” NATO said.
A NATO aircraft attacked the insurgents and NATO said it believed “all ordnance fired landed on the target and one insurgent was killed and another injured.”
“ISAF deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries sustained by Pakistani forces, although the cause of these casualties, and who is responsible, is as yet unclear,” the NATO force, known as the International Security Assistance Force, said in a statement.
The foreign forces apparently mistook Pakistani paramilitary troops in their traditional shalwar and kameez tunics for militants and fired on them at Zangota check post in the North Waziristan tribal region on Monday.
A joint NATO-Pakistani investigation had been convened, it said.
Pakistan is a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism but the United States and other western countries have been urging it do more to curb growing cross-border infiltration by militants from its territory.—Agencies