In a meeting with CIA chief Leon Panetta in Islamabad on 30 September 2010, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the country was “profoundly concerned” about NATO helicopter incursions into Pakistani territory. Pakistan’s powerful-yet-willfully-powerless Prime Minister Gilani better have said more than that in private: for NATO killed three Pakistani soldiers on the same day.

If Pakistan and US forces (and by extension NATO and ISAF) are partners, how could the US and its allies mistake warning shots for something more sinister? Is there, unbelievably, some different protocols at play? Moreover, how could NATO helicopters not know where they were?

Dawn said this in a report on October 1, 2010:

“The third violation of Pakistan’s airspace by NATO in a week is seen by many as part of a plan to extend the Afghan war into Pakistan.”

The comment reeks of speculation and conspiracy, but given the frequency of cross-border incursions recently, this is one conspiracy that many sane people will likely buy into if the US and NATO can’t explain why their helicopters were in Pakistani airspace pursuing nobody and nothing – because there has been no mention of “hot pursuit” in the recent incident. In a very busy and controversial week, offering that NATO forces “inadvertently strayed” into Pakistani territory is unlikely to convince the doubters in Pakistan – and is less likely to win over those elusive hearts and minds.

Watch a news report by AP below. In it, it shows that the Frontier Corps seems to have taken whatever reasonable action they could in protest of their dead comrades: block NATO supply routes into Afghanistan from Pakistan.