KABUL - President Hamid Karzai’s administration would not allow foreign military installations on the Afghanistan side of the Durand Line, his office said on Friday.

Karzai, who returned to Kabul from a visit to three European nations, affirmed this resolve at a joint news conference with Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt in Copenhagen.

In response to a query about Wednesday’s high-stakes border clash between Afghan and Pakistani forces in of eastern Nangarhar province, he promised all possible steps to guard this side of the frontier.

A statement from the Presidential Palace quoted Karzai as saying that the skirmishes, which prompted a strong protest from Islamabad on Thursday, would end soon.

During the seven-hour clash with Pakistani troops in Goshta district, Afghan forces pulled down a controversial border gate. One Afghan border policeman was martyred and five others were wounded.

The constructions fuelled tensions between the neighbors last month, when Deputy Foreign Minister Javed Ludin summoned Pakistani Ambassador Mohammad Sadiq on the issue. (Pajhwok)