Agence France-Presse (2011-12-09 17:47:58)
Official says steps taken to avert air incursions from Afghanistan and to respond to any future air strikes. PHOTO: AFP/ FILE
Pakistan has upgraded its air defense system on the Afghan border to enhance the capability of shooting down aircraft, after NATO strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, a security official said on Friday.
“Now we have a fully equipped air defense system on the Afghan border. It has the capability to trace and detect any aircraft,” the official in the northwestern city of Peshawar told an AFP reporter by telephone.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said the step had been taken to avert air incursions from Afghanistan and to respond to any future air strikes.
“The system has also been upgraded to immediately respond after detecting any aircraft or helicopter and to shoot it down,” he added.
The possibility of Pakistan deploying air defense weapons to the border shows just how much distrust exists between the country and U.S.-led forces fighting in Afghanistan, even though Islamabad has received billions of dollars in American aid over the last decade.
The NATO airstrikes against two army posts on the Afghan border before dawn on Nov. 26 added to anger that Pakistan still felt over the covert U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town in May. Pakistani officials were outraged they were not told beforehand about the operation against the al-Qaida chief, which also originated in Afghanistan, and fumed over the violation of the country's sovereignty as they have done with the NATO attacks.
Maj. Gen. Ashfaq Nadeem, Pakistan's head of military operations, told the Cabinet and the Senate's defense committee Thursday that officials believe the airstrikes were planned and speculated they may have been carried out by the CIA, according to the head of the defense committee, Javed Ashraf Qazi, who attended the briefing.
The CIA is widely despised in Pakistan because of frequent drone strikes targeting militants in Pakistan's tribal region.
Nadeem said the military was considering deploying air defense weapons to the Afghan border to prevent future attacks, according to Qazi.
A report in Pakistan's leading English-language newspaper, Dawn, erroneously said the military has already decided to deploy the weapons.
Pakistan army chief Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani has instructed troops on the ground that they are allowed to strike back against any future incursions without prior approval of top commanders, Qazi quoted Nadeem as saying.
NATO attacks have killed Pakistani troops at least three different times along the porous and poorly defined border since 2008, but the Nov. 26 incident in the Mohmand tribal area was by far the most deadly.
U.S. officials have said the strike occurred when a joint U.S. and Afghan patrol requested air support after coming under fire. The U.S. checked with the Pakistan military to see if friendly troops were in the area and were told there were not, they said.
Pakistan has said the Americans gave the wrong coordinates an allegation denied by U.S. defense officials. Pakistani officials have also said the attack continued even after authorities contacted one of the centers meant to coordinate military activity between forces on either side of the border.
Pakistan retaliated immediately by closing its Afghan border crossings to NATO supplies, demanding the U.S. vacate an air base used by American drones and boycotting an international conference held earlier this week in Bonn, Germany, aimed at stabilizing Afghanistan.
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