Washington, June 29 (ANI): Pakistan has told the United Nations Security Council that it has acted with restraint to a recent cross-border attack by the Taliban that killed 17 Pakistani soldiers, but warned against recurrence of such provocations from the Afghan side.

Preventing recurrence of such incidents is absolutely imperative - and safe havens in Afghanistan of such people must be dissuaded, the Daily Times quoted Envoy Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Pakistan's permanent representative to the UN, as commenting on the attack that took place on June 24 in Upper Dir.

It is a grave incident, which unfortunately is not unprecedented, he said.

Haroon expressed deep concern over provocations from Afghan areas with sizable Afghan forces and international presence.

Haroon said apart from capacity-building of the Afghan National Security Forces, Pakistan had sought closer engagement with Afghanistan and its international partners on all security-related issues.

Pakistan, he added, has done so by maintaining a robust presence of its forces along the international border. Its deployment of troops and paramilitary in the border region had far exceeded the number of international troops in entire Afghanistan. This, according to Haroon, had come at considerable economic, political and human cost for Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Kabul vowed to take concrete steps for stopping cross-border attacks on Pakistani checkposts along Afghanistan's Kunar province.

Expressing concern over the cross-border raids and rocket attacks, Afghan ambassador Umer Daudzai said all Afghans were concerned over the attacks that killed 18 Pakistani soldiers in Dir. (ANI)