Islamabad:
Pakistan announced on Tuesday that it would not attend an important international conference on Afghanistan's security and development that is scheduled to begin in less than a week in protest over the weekend strikes that killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers.
Also on Tuesday, the Pakistani military also offered its first detailed account of the weekend episode, which widely differed with NATO and Afghan diplomat accounts. The army ruled out United States assertions that the strikes were accidental, and instead termed them as "an unprovoked attack of blatant aggression."
The decision to boycott the conference, which is scheduled to take place in Bonn, Germany, starting Monday, was announced after a special meeting of the Pakistani cabinet was held in the eastern city of Lahore. "Pakistan looks forward to the success of this conference but in view of the developments and prevailing circumstances has decided not to participate in the conference," read a government statement.
Afghan officials had been urging Pakistan to attend the conference. More than 50 countries are sending representatives as part of an effort to showcase the international commitment to Afghanistan's security and to reassure Afghans and potential foreign investors about the nation's future.
But Pakistani officials and public have been incensed by the border strikes, which have added new strains to already fragile relations between the United States and Pakistan.
Pakistan has already blocked all NATO logistical supplies that cross the border into Afghanistan. It has also given the Central Intelligence Agency 15 days to vacate the Shamsi air base, from which it has run its campaign of drone strikes into Pakistan's tribal areas.
In a special briefing to local television news anchors and newspaper editors on Tuesday at the army's General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, two top Pakistani army generals - Lt. Gen. Waheed Arshad, the chief of general staff, and Maj. Gen. Ashfaq Nadeem, the director general of military operations - differed with accounts provided by United States officials about what precipitated the weekend strikes.
General Nadeem called the strikes that killed at least 24 Pakistani soldiers, including two officers, as "an unprovoked attack of blatant aggression" where "all coordination procedures were violated."
"It is not possible that the ISAF/NATO forces did not know of location of Pakistani posts," he was quoted as saying, according to accounts provided by several participants.
General Nadeem maintained that the fire did not start from the Pakistani side of the border and blamed NATO helicopters for striking two military posts, Volcano and Boulder. He also emphasized that there was no militant activity from the Pakistani side into Afghanistan.
General Nadeem said that before the NATO strikes, a United States sergeant had called a Pakistani major and said that United States Special Forces had received fire from the Pakistani side of the border at the Gora Poraya post, which is nine miles from the Volcano and Boulder posts.
Both of these posts are at 8,000 feet above the sea level and about 950 to 1,300 feet inside the Pakistani border in the Mohmand tribal region. The Pakistani major responded that he would check but within seven minutes, United States helicopters appeared and started attacking Volcano and Boulder posts, at 15 minutes past midnight on Saturday.
That is when, General Nadeem said, two to three NATO helicopters appeared and hit the Volcano post, resulting in a communication breakdown from the post.
Soldiers at the nearby Boulder post fired back at the helicopters with 24 airbursts, using 12.7 mm ntiaircraft heavy machine guns. The NATO helicopters hit the Boulder post and communication with that post was also severed. The company commander, a major, was killed while he was moving to the Boulder post.
Later, all channels of communication were activated and confirmation was received that the helicopters had pulled back at 1:05 a.m., the general said.
Reinforcements were sent to the Boulder post, but United States helicopters reappeared and pinned down the reinforcements. Pakistani soldiers fired 26 rounds of artillery at the helicopters and both sides fought until 2:15 a.m.