Afghanistan returns five bodies of Pakistani soldiers

KHOST/PARACHINAR: Afghanistan authorities on Monday handed over the bodies of five Pakistani soldiers and an injured soldier captured during a border skirmish, to Pakistani officials, said Khost governor Hukum Khan Habibi.

The dispute arose over Pakistan’s work on a fence intended to span nearly all of the 2,500-km (1,550-mile) border, much of it mountainous and porous.

According to reports, 10 attackers from the Afghan side were also killed in clashes that erupted in the area after the FC men erecting fence along the border in Lower Kurram Agency came under fire.

Military officials of Pakistan and Afghanistan held a flag meeting at a location near the border to hold ceasefire. The two sides later agreed to a ceasefire.
MNA Sajid Hussain Turi, who is leading a delegation of local tribes holding talks with the elders of Zazi tribe of Afghanistan, confirmed the death toll.

After the flag meeting the elders of Turi and Zazi tribes held a jirga to defuse the tension escalated after the border clashes.

Border skirmishes in the area are common. Each national government alleges that the other allows sheltering of Taliban militants who stage cross-border attacks.

The tribesmen handle security in their Zazi Maidan district of Khost in Afghanistan.

Under a multi-billion-rupee border management plan, Pakistan began fencing the border on its side last year. The plan aims at preventing unlawful cross-border movement.