Pakistan Is Reopening Its Borders With Afghanistan

JAKARTA - Pakistan on Saturday again opened a main cross-border post with neighboring Afghanistan for all types of traffic.

The Torkham border between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province in southwest Pakistan and Afghanistan's Nangarhardi Province was unilaterally closed by the Taliban government last week. Then the Afghan government announced it was reopening the border on Thursday, but Pakistan refused to reopen borders in its territory, local officials told Anadolu by telephone. Last night we temporarily opened the border for Pakistanis trapped in Afghan territory, said an official who did not wish to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media, as reported by Antara. He added that the border was finally fully opened for trade, stopovers and pedestrians from both sides in the morning. Last week, Kabul unilaterally closed the border which was followed by a shootout between two border guard troops on Monday. This comes three days after Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif met with Afghanistan Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and Defense Secretary Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob in Kabul on Wednesday.Pakistan and Afghanistan had 18 border points. The busiest of them was the Torkham and Chaman border, which is the Blochistan Province of western Pakistan with Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan.

Clashes between the two border guard forces have often occurred and have not even stopped since the Taliban returned to Afghanistan. December last year, at least six Pakistani civilians died as a result of intense firefights on the border of Chaman. Apart from trading activities, thousands of people, especially Afghan people, cross every day in the two border areas for medical and work purposes.

The two neighboring countries have a border of nearly 2,670 kilometers.