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Last week’s Nato attack in Mohmand was not the first of its kind on Pakistani territory. Here, Dawn.com presents a timeline of similar ‘unprovoked’ attacks that came from across the Afghanistan border:
26 November, 2011 Saturday, Mohmand Agency
Nato helicopters killed 24 Pakistani military personnel in blistering air strikes on two Pakistani positions in the Mohmand tribal region. An army major and a captain were among the dead.
The officials said the posts manned by regular army personnel had been set up to check militants’ infiltration into Pakistan from across the border.
Islamabad reacted swiftly, closing the Torkham and Chaman border points to trucks carrying supplies for the Nato-led western forces in Afghanistan.
Army chief General Parvez Ashfaq Kayani condemned the air strike as a “blatant and unacceptable act, resulting in loss of precious lives of Pakistani soldiers”, the ISPR statement said.
Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said, “I offer my deepest condolences and sympathy to the families of the Pakistani officers and soldiers who lost their lives or were injured, and to the government and people of Pakistan, following the regrettable incident along the Afghan-Pakistani border.”
17 May, 2011 Tuesday, North Waziristan A Nato helicopter from Afghanistan intruded into Pakistan’s North Waziristan region, wounding two troops, local intelligence officials said.
“It happened early morning,” an intelligence official in the region, who declined to be identified, told Reuters. “The helicopter hit a Pakistani check post on the border in the Datta Khel area.”
The Pakistan army lodged a “strong protest” with Nato in Afghanistan over what it said was a violation of Pakistani air space by two helicopters, a military statement said.
26 November, 2010 Friday, North Waziristan’s Datta Khel area At least three people were wounded when two Nato gunship helicopters opened fire in North Waziristan’s Dattakhel area after violating Pakistani airspace on Friday, reports said.
The helicopters, incurring several kilometres into Pakistani territory, struck the Lowara Mandi village in Dattakhel.
30 September, 2010 Thursday, Kurram Agency Three personnel of the Frontier Corps were killed in an attack by two Nato helicopters on a security post in Kurram Agency.
The two helicopters intruded into the Kurram Agency from Afghanistan’s Paktia province before dawn and when security personnel deployed at the Mandato Kandaou post, 15 kilometres west of Parachinar, fired warning shots the helicopters fired missiles.
According to ISPR, two helicopters from Afghanistan appeared to have crossed the border into Pakistan at Mandato Kandaou in the Ali Mangola area of Upper Kurram Agency and engaged through cannon fire an outpost of the Frontier Corps located 200 metres inside Pakistan and manned by six soldiers.
Troops at the post retaliated with rifle fire to indicate that the helicopters were crossing into Pakistan’s territory. Instead of heeding the warning, the helicopters fired two missiles, destroying the post.
Pakistan blocked the Torkham border supply route for US and allied troops in Afghanistan on Thursday after three personnel of the Frontier Corps were killed in an attack by two Nato helicopters.
26 September, 2010 Sunday, North Waziristan US helicopters killed more than 30 people – alleged Haqqani Network fighters – during a hot pursuit, according to diplomatic sources.
The militants had attacked Combat Outpost Narizah, an Afghan base eight miles from the Pakistani border in Tani district of Khost.
US forces repelled the attack and pursued the militants to their post just across the border in North Waziristan.
US officials say that Isaf forces are permitted to pursue Taliban forces across the border if they are engaged in fighting or are under attack.
They said that US and Pakistani military commanders have agreed to a set of rules for hot pursuit, which says that US forces must be engaged with the Taliban or Al Qaeda as they cross into Pakistan.
US forces, however, not penetrate more than six miles into Pakistani territory.
But they can go deeper inside Pakistan if they identify the location of Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahri, or Mullah Omar.
Pakistan denies having such an agreement while US officials refuse to offer on the record comments on this issue.
