Islamabad lodges protest with Kabul after four killed

Islamabad on Sunday lodged a protest with Kabul after four Pakistani soldiers were killed when a rocket was fired at a check-post in a tribal area of Khayber-Agency that borders Afghanistan, the military's media wing reported.

Afghanistan's ambassador to Pakistan Janan Mosazai was called in Islamabad's foreign office where a strong protest was conveyed to him. Pakistan demanded that Kabul take measures on war-footing to put a curb on such cross-border attacks, Geo TV reported.

According to an Inter-Services Public Relations statement, some unidentified men targeted the military check-post, located at an altitude of 8,000 feet, from across the Afghanistan border.

Responding to the attack, the Pakistan Army destroyed a militant hideout, killing a number of terrorists, the ISPR statement said.

The attack comes days after Mosazai was called in by Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry to convey concerns over recent spate of Afghan government's allegations and media campaign to malign Pakistan.

This was not the first time a cross-border attack has happened on the Pakistan-Afghan border.

The attack comes at a time when relations between Islamabad and Kabul have deteriorated in the wake of a surge in Taliban attacks in Afghanistan and statements of Afghan leaders against Pakistan.

Pakistan earlier summoned the Afghan ambassador to lodge a protest over a border clash in which three Frontier Constabulary men were killed on August 16-17.