karan.1970
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Posts based on media reports - I believe the official PA account has remained consistent.
I think 300 yards figure 1st came out late evening and was rubbished quite a bit.. Most of the discussion y'day was based on how 2.5 km is too large a distance to cover by mistake and how Pakistan couldnt have fired first since no gun would hit that large a distance
It is a 'grave crime' since the posts themselves are clearly demarcated, and 2.5KM is too large a distance to 'cross accidentally'.
And this does not even take into account the fact that if the base was 2.5KM inside Pakistani territory, then NATO forces would have to have been inside Pakistani territory to be within the range of gunfire from the Pakistani base, which means that even if Pakistani forces fired first, they were justified in doing so against forces violating Pakistani territory.
Therefore, no matter what the excuse, NATO is completely at fault here.
There has been no accusation made by anyone that Pakistani soldiers were giving covering fire for the Taliban to infiltrate into Afghanistan. The area was free from militants from the Pakistani side. There has been no suggestion made of this scenario. And the first scenario (hot pursuit) talks about the militants on the Afghan side of the border, not Pakistan. The second scenario (defense) talks about firing from the Pakistani side, but it is not possible that firing from 2.5km inside Pakistan could hit Afghanistan.
It has already been argued in the past several pages - the 'self defence under Pakistani fire' claim does not add up given the location of the base as reported in some accounts (2.5km inside Pakistan), claims of 'gunfire' (which would not be possible from 2.5KM away), claims of 'Commandos on the ground calling in air strikes', which would indicate incompetence on the part of NATO since the coordinates of the base were known to NATO and the proper procedure should have been contacting Pakistani authorities to clear confusion if gunfire was indeed coming from the Pakistani base.
There is nothing so far that suggests NATO was not completely at fault here.
I could go on and on, but I guess you get the gist