As many as 30 Pakistani teenage boys were kidnapped by a Taliban group on Thursday when they inadvertently crossed into Afghanistan's Kunar province while picnicking along the porus Durand Line.
According to local authorities, the boys — all residents of Bajaur tribal agency — have been kidnapped by a group owing allegiance to Maulvi Faqir Muhammad who is understood to have escaped from the area into Afghanistan following military operations.
Though this is the first such mass hostage situation along the border in months, cross-border intrusions have been on the increase with both Pakistan and Afghanistan now accusing each other of not doing enough against terror camps. In fact, these incursions have become a new irritant in bilateral relations.
Since the beginning of this summer, there have been a number of intrusions from Afghanistan into Pakistan with the intruders attacking check posts and raiding border villages. The latest such incident on Saturday left 25 security personnel and 20 intruders dead in the exchange of fire that followed in Chitral.
The Chitral attack, according to the Army, was staged by terrorists from Swat, Dir and Bajaur with the help of Fazlullah and Maulvi Faqir Muhammad who took refuge in Afghanistan following military operations in their native areas.
“The terrorists have organised themselves in Kunar and Nooristan provinces with the support of local Afghan authorities,'' an ISPR statement said after the Chitral incident; adding that the scanty presence of NATO and Afghan National Army forces along the Durand Line allowed terrorists to use these areas as safe havens and mount attacks on Pakistani forces and isolated villages along the border.
After the Chitral incident, Pakistan lodged a protest with Afghanistan. The Afghan Charge d'Affairs was summoned to the Foreign Ministry where he was told that Islamabad expected effective action to prevent further incursions. Pakistan also conveyed “the imperative of establishing peace and tranquillity in the border region and effectively dealing with terrorists,'' a Foreign Office statement said.
