MIRAMSHAH: Three soldiers of the Pakistan Army were martyred and seven others suffered injuries in the Alwara Mandai area of North Waziristan tribal district late on Tuesday night when a group of between 60 and 70 terrorists from across the Afghan border attacked the troops undertakingthe borderfencing.

A number of attackers werekilled and wounded in the counter-attack while several others fled as the Pakistan Army repulsed the ambush, according to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Wednesday.

The ISPR said the Pakistani security forces were solidifying border security through fencing and construction of forts some 65 kilometres west ofMiramshah to deny liberty of action to the terrorists when the attack was carried out from across the Afghan border.

Lance Naik Ali, Lance Naik Nazeer and Sepoy Imdadullah were martyred, while seven other soldiers got wounded in the exchange of fire. They were later shifted to Peshawar for medical treatment.

Sources said terrorists firedat the troops from the Malik Shahi area where the Afghan army had a checkpoint.

The ISPR said Afghan security forces and the authorities needed to have more effective control in the border region to deny use of Afghan soil against Pakistan and support the border fencing efforts. It added that the efforts to solidify border fencing would continue despite all impediments.

The army had started fencing of 2,600-kilometre-long border with Afghanistan in 2017 with an estimated cost of Rs70 billion.

So far, fencing work on1,000-kmlong border along Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces has been completed.

Later, Additional Secretary (Afghanistan & West Asia) summoned the Afghan Chargéd`Affaires to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and lodged Pakistan`s strong protest over the attack by the terrorists from Afghanistan.

Pakistan strongly protests such provocations which were detrimental to peace and stability along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, the Afghan envoy was told. The Afghan side was asked to take immediate action against the terrorist elements on their side and ensure effective measures so that such incidents were not repeated in future.

Peace efforts af firmed Meanwhile, an Afghan delegation comprising politicians, media persons, academicians, experts and businessmen called on Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and dis-cussed matters of mutual interest including Pak-Afghan relations and Afghan peace process.

They lauded Pakistan`s efforts to bring parties to the negotiating table for Afghan peace. The delegation also presented proposals for peacebuilding between Pakistan and Afghanistan and promotion of political and trade relations between the two countries.

The foreign minister expressed the hope that Pakistan`s sincere ef forts to bring decades-old turmoilin Afghanistan to an end would succeed. He assured the delegation that Pakistan would continue its efforts for peace in the region in general and in Afghanistan in particular.

Iftikhar A. Khan in Islarnabad also contributed to this report