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Pakistan protests to Afghan envoy | |
(about 2 hours later) | |
Afghanistan's ambassador to Pakistan has been summoned to the foreign ministry to receive a formal protest over remarks by President Hamid Karzai. | |
Mr Karzai said on Sunday that Afghanistan had the right to send troops across the border to chase militants taking shelter in Pakistan. | |
The Afghan ambassador in Islamabad was given a "strong protest" over the comments, Pakistan says. | |
The US says cross-border raids from Pakistan are a growing problem. | |
Pakistani officials would not elaborate on what was said when the Afghan ambassador, Mohammad Anwar Anwarzai, received the protest. | |
In outspoken remarks on Sunday, President Karzai said: "Afghanistan has the right of self-defence. When [militants] cross the territory from Pakistan to come and kill Afghans and to kill coalition troops it exactly gives us the right to go back and do the same." | |
He was speaking two days after Taleban fighters attacked an Afghan jail, freeing some 900 inmates, including 350 Taleban members. | |
The Afghan president has long pleaded for Pakistan and international forces to confront militants in Pakistan but has never before threatened to send troops over the border. | The Afghan president has long pleaded for Pakistan and international forces to confront militants in Pakistan but has never before threatened to send troops over the border. |
Insurgents killed | Insurgents killed |
Mr Karzai warned he was prepared to seek out Taleban leaders wherever they were, specifically naming Baitullah Mehsud, who is based in South Waziristan, Pakistan. | Mr Karzai warned he was prepared to seek out Taleban leaders wherever they were, specifically naming Baitullah Mehsud, who is based in South Waziristan, Pakistan. |
President Hamid Karzai says his country has a right to defend itself | |
"Baitullah Mehsud should know that we will go after him now and hit him in his house," Mr Karzai said, adding that Taleban leader Mullah Omar could expect the same. | "Baitullah Mehsud should know that we will go after him now and hit him in his house," Mr Karzai said, adding that Taleban leader Mullah Omar could expect the same. |
Correspondents say it is the strongest language used yet by Mr Karzai regarding his neighbour. | |
But Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said his country would not allow any interference in its affairs. | |
Mr Gilani said that the border between their two countries was too long to police. | |
"Neither do we interfere in anyone else's matters, nor will we allow anyone to interfere in our territorial limits and our affairs," Mr Gilani told the Associated Press news agency. | |
"We want a stable Afghanistan. It is in our interest. How can we go to destabilise our brotherly country?" | |
In the wake of Friday's jail break, some 20 escapees from the Kandahar prison have been recaptured in the manhunt by Afghan and international troops, according to Afghan officials. | |
A former Taleban stronghold, Kandahar is one of the key battlegrounds in the insurgency against Afghanistan's government and troops from Nato and a US-led coalition. | A former Taleban stronghold, Kandahar is one of the key battlegrounds in the insurgency against Afghanistan's government and troops from Nato and a US-led coalition. |