NATO knew it was Pakistani checkpost: Islamabad

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Pakistan on Monday said NATO was aware that it was their army checkpost that was attacked a day earlier and it refused to accept the coalition force's regret over the airstrike that killed 25 soldiers.

Army spokesperson Major General Athar Abbas said they do not accept NATO's regret and this action can lead to serious consequences.

NATO's regret over the attack is not enough, Geo News quoted General Abbas as saying.NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Sunday that this was a 'tragic, unintended incident'.

Abbas Monday rejected NATO's claim that Pakistan forces initiated fire and said: "NATO forces should present proof if they were claiming that firing was started from Pakistani side." He said: "No fire was opened from our side."

He added NATO could not make the excuse that they were chasing terrorists across the border as the area where the attack took place had been cleared of militants.

'NATO has maps of all Pak check posts'

Athar Abbas said that NATO had been provided maps of all Pakistani check posts as reference and they had also been informed about their positions, reported Associated Press of Pakistan.

The general said the attack took place 200-300 metres within Pakistan's borders.

He said that the investigations were still going on about the two posts - Volcano and Golden.

Giving the sequence of events, General Abbas said that when the attack was initiated, the soldiers deployed at the posts immediately informed the senior officers who took up the issue with regional headquarter at Peshawar and GHQ Rawalpindi.

He said they learnt about the death of the soldiers after mortar shelling stopped from across the border.The attack continued up to two hours in which 13 soldiers were injured.

To a query, he said only the NATO chief could answer about ceasefire as he was informed about the attack.

He said that NATO was also informed about presence of these posts and International Security Assistance Force officials were informed whenever a new post was created so that they could retain map references of these posts.