Islamabad: Two military helicopters of the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan intruded into Pakistan's Khyber tribal region, triggering panic among local residents, reports said on Monday.

Local residents said the helicopters intruded deep into the Landi Kotal area of Khyber Agency, adjacent to Afghanistan's Nangarhar province on Sunday afternoon and hovered over the town for more than 10 minutes.

This was the first intrusion by helicopters of the coalition forces into Khyber Agency, the Dawn newspaper reported. The incident occurred almost a week after an air and ground strike by coalition forces on a Pakistani post in the adjacent Mohmand tribal area killed 11 Pakistani paramilitary personnel and 10 tribesmen.

The spy planes of coalition forces have increased their flights over Pakistan's tribal belt since last week. Spy planes and fighter jets have also increased their flights over North and South Waziristan tribal regions over the past four days. Waziristan is the stronghold of Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud.

A military spokesman expressed ignorance about the airspace intrusion in Khyber Agency. Meanwhile, the 'Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan' has condemned Afghan President Hamid Karzai's threat to send NATO and Afghan forces into Pakistan's border areas to target militant leaders, including Baitullah Mehsud, Maulana Fazlullah and Mullah Omar.

Karzai issued the threat during a news conference on Sunday, prompting Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to say that Pakistan will not allow anyone to interfere within its territorial limits.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar said that if foreign forces entered the tribal areas for military action, the Taliban would increase attacks against the NATO forces and Afghan National Army.

Omar said Karzai had created more difficulties for himself by threatening to send coalition troops after militants in the tribal areas. The Taliban did not care for the threats of the Afghan president, he said.

He said the growing activities of the Taliban on Afghan soil had scared the Karzai government. The US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan are facing a "shameful defeat at the hands of the Taliban", which had prompted Karzai to hurl threats at Pakistan, he said.

He said thousands of followers of the Taliban movement would defend Pakistan's frontiers "if the Afghan National Army indulged in any misadventure against them in the tribal region".

Source : PTI