ISLAMABAD, July 18: Prime Minister Rajaz Pervez Ashraf will visit Afghanistan on Thursday for talks with the Afghan president, with cross-border attacks by militants on the agenda, officials said.

“The prime minister is visiting Kabul tomorrow where he will hold talks with President Hamid Karzai on issues related to peace and security in the region,” a senior government official said.

Prime minister’s spokesman Akram Shaheedi said on Wednesday that Pakistan supported peace talks with the Afghan Taliban, but the outcome should not adversely affect the country.

Mr Shaheedi said the prime minister plans to push the Afghan government to stop militants from infiltrating Pakistan.

Mr Ashraf, making his first trip to Kabul as prime minister, will raise the issue of attacks launched on Pakistani soil from across the border and press for increased security measures to prevent such incursions in future.

There has been a spurt in cross-border attacks in the past month, raising questions about whether Pakistani Taliban have regrouped in Afghanistan since escaping an army offensive three years ago.

On June 27 the Taliban released a video showing severed heads of 17 Pakistani soldiers who they said were killed in a cross-border attack on a check-post in Pakistani tribal region of Upper Dir three days earlier.

On Wednesday, security officials said troops killed six militants as they tried to cross from Afghanistan in Chitral.—Agencies