Afghanistan's security forces will not respond with military force to weeks of cross-border shelling from Pakistan, President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday, as the Afghan parliament called on him to sever ties with Islamabad over the issue.
Some 300 people also protested against the shelling in Asadabad, the capital of eastern Kunar province, demanding an end to the shelling and calling for revenge.
Hundreds of rockets have hit Afghanistan since early June, officials say, and killed dozens of civilians, infuriating Afghans from ordinary villagers to the top echelons of power.
A top Afghan police general last week offered his resignation over the government's response to the attacks, and there have been at least two demonstrations.
Karzai said his Interior and Defense Ministers had sought permission to open fire if more rockets landed.
But the president said he had refused because returning fire risked creating more innocent victims in Pakistan.
"Afghanistan never wants to harm civilians in Pakistan with its response," Karzai told a joint news conference in Kabul with visiting British Prime Minister David Cameron.
"Afghanistan is seriously engaged in talks with Pakistan to solve this issue," he added.
Karzai's parliament, despite facing internal turmoil after a government-backed court ruled in June to unseat 62 lawmakers, has focused debate on the attacks for the last three days, and wants to see sterner action.
"The parliamentarians called on the government to cut ties with Pakistan because its non-stop shells have killed many innocent civilians," said Fraidoon Momand, a lawmaker from eastern Nangarhar province, which has been hit.
"We have long demanded that Pakistan explain the shelling but they didn't," he added. Reuters
