QUETTA, Pakistan - Pakistani authorities are investigating claims by residents of a remote border village that NATO and Afghan forces crossed into Pakistan to search for suspected Taliban militants and killed a local tribesman, officials said Thursday.
Afghan troops entered the village of Qamar Din on Wednesday morning and began shooting, killing one villager, said Abdul Raziq Bugti, spokesman for the government of Baluchistan province, citing claims by residents.
Villagers reported that the Afghan border security forces also wounded two Pakistani tribesmen and detained 11 villagers who were taken to Afghanistan, Bugti said.
The government has ordered authorities in the area to investigate the alleged incident in the village, about 210 kilometres northeast of Quetta, Baluchistan's capital, he said.
Pakistan -- a close ally of the United States in its war against terrorism -- has repeatedly said it will not allow foreign forces to operate on its soil in the hunt for militants.
Maulvi Mohammed Sharif, mayor of Zhob district where Qamar Din is located, said Thursday that NATO forces also entered Qamar Din along with the Afghan government troops, citing reports by villagers and security officials.
Pakistan Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said he had read about the incident in newspapers but had no confirmation of it. Pakistani military and Foreign Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.
A spokeswoman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force said that no ISAF forces were involved. Special Forces soldiers in Afghanistan do not operate under ISAF's chain of command, and a Special Forces spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Urdu-language newspaper Jang, citing villagers, said NATO and Afghan troops riding in three pickup trucks and three armoured personnel carriers entered Qamar Din on Wednesday morning and began firing heavy and small weapons at several homes, killing one villager.
Thousands of NATO and U.S. forces are based in Afghanistan to hunt down militants from al-Qaida and the Taliban militia in regions along the border with Pakistan.
The Pakistan-Afghan border straddles rugged mountains and desert regions and it is not clearly demarcated in places.
Pakistan has announced plans to build a fence and lay mines along sections of its border to stop militants from crossing into Afghanistan following accusations that Taliban militants were operating out of Pakistan.
